German opposition leader Friedrich Merz said on Wednesday he is open to reforming the country’s constitutional brake on public spending.
Merz, widely seen as the favorite to succeed Chancellor Olaf Scholz after next year’s parliamentary elections, said only the first 20 articles in the Basic Law, Germany’s constitution, are unchangeable.
“Everything else can of course be discussed,” Merz said at an economic conference organized by the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper in Berlin. There are 146 articles in the German Constitution.
The debt brake – a fiscal rule that limits the German government’s ability to run budget deficits – was enshrined in the German constitution in 2009, amid the fallout from the global financial crisis.
Supporters, including many lawmakers from Merz’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU), see the policy as a paradigm of fiscal responsibility.
On the other hand, critics believe that the debt brake has prevented crucial investments in the country’s infrastructure and social services.
Merz continued: “Of course it can be reformed. The question is: why? For what purpose? What is the result of such a reform? Is the result that we spend even more money on consumption and social policy? Then the answer is no. .”
However, if the brakes were lifted to allow investment and increase prosperity, Merz said the answer “could be different.”
