The climate alarmist policies and the pandemic fear-mongering measures have a lot in common. Maybe they deserved to be pictured together in some ‘book of imaginary threats’.
In Germany they tried to take this parallelism too far, causing the Constitutional Court to step in to block the government from using leftover ‘pandemic’ money in its Climate and Transformation Fund (KTF).
In doing so, the court may have just salvaged the abused German ‘debit brake’ rules.
Olaf Scholz and his team have had to freeze ‘major spending pledges focused on green initiatives and industry support’, as the court ruling blew a 60 billion euro ($65 billion) hole in its finances.
Reuters reported:
“The decision threw into disarray budget negotiations taking place this week within Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s three-way ruling coalition, whose popularity has slumped as Europe’s biggest economy teeters close to another recession.”
The decision by the constitutional court could also set a precedent for fiscal responses to future crises.
“Scholz said the ruling on Wednesday would have far-reaching consequences for the government’s Climate and Transformation Fund (KTF) but that his coalition would look for other sources of funding. “We will now quickly revise the economic plan, incorporate the necessary changes and adopt new ones,” he said on social media.”
The sum of 60 billion euros had been earmarked for initiatives such as making buildings more energy efficient, renewable electricity and chips production.
“‘This ruling will come as a massive setback to the government. The practice that was now dismissed by the court had allowed the government to forge policy compromises that kept all three parties in Scholz’s coalition satisfied’, said a note by the [Political Risk Consultancy] Eurasia group. ‘Spending cuts now look unavoidable and Eurasia Group believes that the bulk of the cuts will likely hit climate-related projects’.”
The sum of 60 billion euros had been earmarked for initiatives such as making buildings more energy efficient, renewable electricity and chips production.
“‘This ruling will come as a massive setback to the government. The practice that was now dismissed by the court had allowed the government to forge policy compromises that kept all three parties in Scholz’s coalition satisfied’, said a note by the [Political Risk Consultancy] Eurasia group. ‘Spending cuts now look unavoidable and Eurasia Group believes that the bulk of the cuts will likely hit climate-related projects’.”
The constitutional court ruled that the budget maneuver was incompatible with the debt brake enshrined in Germany’s constitutional Basic Law.
“Friedrich Merz, whose main opposition Christian Democratic Union party had launched the lawsuit against the government, said the ruling had stopped what he called ‘the self-service mentality’ of the government and strengthened the debt brake. ‘A key cornerstone of the government’s budget and financial planning is collapsing’, he told local media.”
The debt brake allows new borrowing to the tune of only 0.35% of annual gross domestic product.
Associated Press reported:
“[The debt brake] can be suspended to deal with natural disasters or other emergencies that are out of the state’s control, and was for the three years after the coronavirus pandemic started in 2020 to allow for large amounts of borrowing to finance various support and stimulus packages.”
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The post ‘No, Scholz, You Can’t Use Leftover Pandemic Money in Your Climate Alarmist Policies’: German Constitutional Court appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.