German President of the German Association of Cities, Markus Lewe, speaks out in favor of a reform of the debt brake. “The future federal government will not bypass the debt brake after the new elections” said the CDU politician to the Funke Media Group newspapers. “If the debt brake hinders necessary future investments, it must be reformed.”
The cities alone have an investment backlog of more than 186 billion euros, Lewe said. “Schools and streets can’t be quickly renovated, new buses and trains can’t be purchased. Too often, the funds are even missing to maintain existing infrastructure at all.” To make cities climate-neutral, huge sums are needed, the Mayor of Münster said. “We must rebuild our cities if we want to achieve the traffic shift, the energy shift, and the heating shift.”
Lewe said: “The debt brake must not hinder these future investments. The federal government and the states must clearly support the cities in important future tasks.