According to the Parliamentary State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Economics, Michael Kellner (Greens), the budget ruling of the Federal Constitutional Court hits East Germany in particular. If the missing 60 billion euros for the Climate and Transformation Fund are not raised elsewhere, the East German economy is threatened with considerable damage, Kellner told the editorial network Germany.
Of the announced investments in German industry of 80 billion euros, around 50 billion were in East Germany, Kellner said. "We are now faced with the huge challenge of securing these investments, as well as the jobs and prosperity associated with them, through government support." Kellner emphasized that, as things stand today, neither the settlement of the chip factories in Dresden and Magdeburg, nor the reconstruction of the solar industry in eastern Germany, would be secured without the Climate and Transformation Fund.
FDP finance and budget expert Frank Schäffler is calling for the abandonment of subsidies for the chip factories in Magdeburg and Dresden. "It has always been wrong to put billions in subsidies into the settlement of chip factories," Schäffler told RND. According to RND, Schäffler did not accept the argument of subsidies in disadvantaged regions: The planned locations of the chip factories, Magdeburg and Dresden, are not structurally weak areas. "On the contrary, there is a shortage of workers there," said the FDP politician. "And the construction of the chip factories would mean that medium-sized companies would lose out locally."
DIW Expert: Suspension of the Debt Brake Justified
DIW expert Claudia Kemfert considers the suspension of the debt brake to be justified by a ruling by the Federal Constitutional Court in 2021. According to a report by the "Mediengruppe Bayern", it recommends a three-pronged approach to realizing the transformation in Germany: "First, cut spending in non-future areas. Second, we need to put unnecessary spending by the Climate and Transformation Fund to the test. Thirdly, suspend the debt brake."
The Federal Constitutional Court itself had provided sufficient justification for this in its 2021 ruling by naming climate protection as the central task of the state, said Kemfert. In view of the climate crisis and the economic transformation, Germany urgently needs future investments in electromobility, rail transport, digitalisation, storage and building energy.