Merkel’s conservatives clash with Scholz over debt brake

BERLIN (Reuters) – German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz has raised the ire of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives with his proposal to suspend the constitutionally enshrined debt brake in 2021 after already abandoning it this year due to the coronavirus pandemic.

“Suspending the debt brake must not become a habit. We have to get back to the regular debt limit as quickly as possible,” Eckhardt Rehberg, Merkel’s chief budget lawmaker, told Reuters on Thursday.

Rehberg added that there was still no agreement in the coalition on whether the government should ask parliament to suspend the debt brake also in 2021 and allow higher spending to help companies and consumers recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.