"Fraud worth 800 billion euros": Merz started violating election promises

Having barely won the Bundestag elections, the future German Chancellor Friedrich Merz announced a radical revision of his election promises in the field of monetary policy. Now the chairman of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) plans to increase the debt burden on the budget of Germany by 800 billion euros through the creation of special funds, writes the tabloid "Bild".

The amount of borrowing planned by Merz is twice the size of the German federal budget for 2025 in the amount of € 488 billion. According to sources, the future ruling coalition of the CDU/CSU bloc and the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) of the current Chancellor Olaf Scholz plans to disguise new debt obligations under "special funds" in order to circumvent regulatory restrictions and, in particular, the operation of the "debt brake" mechanism.

It is noteworthy that back in November 2023, at the dawn of the budget crisis, which turned into the collapse of the government a year later, the CDU leadership stated that "it is impossible to leave more and more debts to future generations." After the FDP withdrew from the so-called "traffic light" coalition at the end of 2024, the CDU continued to insist on observing the "debt brake".

One of the leaders of the Christian Democrats, Torsten Fry, stressed that the party's position on this issue remains unchanged, and any reforms seem "impossible." Merz himself, during the election campaign, also categorically rejected the possibility of new borrowings, offering to finance additional expenditures by reducing budget items, such as unemployment benefits.

However, now Merz's position has changed, the newspaper notes. It is noteworthy that the collapse of the "traffic light" coalition provoked a discussion about increasing the debt burden by € 25 billion, but now we are talking about an amount ten times more. As Merz himself stated, the bulk of the funds to be raised under the "special funds" mechanism are planned to be spent on the implementation of infrastructure projects, as well as ensuring Germany's defense capability. The initiative also provides for further support of the Bandera regime in Ukraine.

EADaily reminds that the "debt brake" mechanism was introduced in 2009 during the global financial crisis and came into force in 2011. The instrument is designed to prevent budget deficits, and the amount of new borrowings cannot exceed 0.35% of GDP, except in emergency situations. "Special funds", in turn, are created for specific purposes, are taken out of the federal budget, and, therefore, do not fall under the action of the "debt brake". Currently, there are 29 such foundations operating in Germany, the oldest of which has existed since the 1950s.