A German Green party leader, Felix Banaszak, has called on the CDU’s Friedrich Merz to seek a broad majority for a reform of the debt brake and to include the Left in the process. According to the news agency “Welt”, Banaszak stated, “Friedrich Merz should also reach out to the Left and he should invite the Left to talks. Because the reality of the next few years will be that it will only be possible to achieve constitutional majorities with the Left. Friedrich Merz has not taken the opportunities that have shown themselves over the last years and also in the last months after the collapse of the government coalition.”
The Greens, Banaszak emphasized, are still willing to engage in talks about a debt brake reform. “At the moment, the SPD and the CDU are just clarifying their positions and then there will certainly be talks afterwards” he said.
However, Banaszak finds a reform of the debt brake with the Greens alone to be a problematic solution from a constitutional law and democratic theory perspective: “What we are currently discussing is not only legally but also democratically challenging. Normally, after a federal election, one does not do anything with the old Bundestag’s majorities, because a new Bundestag has already been elected.”
“And one does it in emergency cases, for example, if an overseas deployment requires a new mandate or something similar. But in essence, the justification is, we do not have the majorities we would like and then we use them, even if it’s difficult” he added.