GERMANY’s debt per the coronavirus effect is feared to have amassed more than £270bn. Germany plans to take on £70 billion in additional debt will simply make the country’s famous fiscal discipline the latest victim of the coronavirus, piling yet more pressure on Chancellor Angela Merkel, a German former MEP has warned.
Hans-Olaf Henkel suggested Olaf Scholz, Germany’s finance minister, and the leader of the centre-left SPD party, was motivated by a desire to mollify those on the left – while warning of dire consequences for the country as a whole.
Mr Henkel was speaking after Mr Scholz unveiled radical plans which would involve a further suspension of Germany’s constitutionally enshrined debt limits, which were previously shelved earlier this year.
An insider said the precise debt figure for 2021 was still being negotiated by members of the coalition government led by the CDU’s Angela Merkel.
Projections have indicated Germany’s combined new debt for 2020 and 2021 could approach an gargantuan £270billion.
Mr Henkel, who stood down from the European Parliament last year, told Express.co.uk: “The current Finance Minister of Germany, Olaf Scholz, is both an advocate of ‘more Brussels’ and a socialist.
Mr Scholz is reportedly offering guarantees that he will balance the books by 2022, the insider said earlier this week – but Mr Henkel described such pledges as “worth nothing”.
He said: “Rarely have German politicians broken so many promises as in the case for ‘more Europe’, for ‘saving the euro’ and for ‘fighting COVID-19’.
Source: Hans-Olaf Henkel