2023-11-27 17:04:42
Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck (M.) on November 27th with his colleagues from Saxony-Anhalt, Armin Willingmann, and from Bavaria, Hubert Aiwanger (Free Voters)
Photo: dpa/Michael Kappeler
Are Intel and TSCM still coming to Germany? The two chip manufacturers from the USA and Taiwan actually have big plans: the former wants to invest 33 billion euros in a new factory in Magdeburg and create 3,000 jobs, the latter wants to invest ten billion in a factory in Dresden where 2,000 people could work. The problem: Both settlements depend on generous government funding. Intel was promised 9.9 billion euros and five billion would go to TSCM. The money was supposed to come from the federal government’s Climate and Transformation Fund (KTF), for which Corona aid amounting to 60 billion euros was reallocated, but this was unconstitutional according to a ruling by the Federal Constitutional Court in mid-November. Numerous other projects are affected, from the development of a hydrogen economy to heat supply in municipalities.
All of these projects still have to happen. “These are not fun projects, they are existentially important,” said Bavaria’s Economics Minister Hubert Aiwanger (Free Voters) on Monday after a special meeting of the federal states’ economics and energy ministers with Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck, which was arranged at short notice. The Green politician has the same tenor: “All projects must be made possible. They all have good reasons.” A distinction between urgent and less important projects that could possibly be foregone is not possible, added Armin Willingmann (SPD), Minister for the Environment and Energy in Saxony-Anhalt: “A ranking is impossible .”
As justification, the ministers point to irreparable damage to the business location and its international competitiveness. Economic policy has “become competition and competition policy,” said Habeck. He mentioned, for example, a recent announcement from Great Britain that the government would promote the establishment of environmentally friendly industries. The USA is pursuing the same goal with the billion-dollar Inflation Reduction Act. “If we do nothing, the changed technology will come anyway,” said Habeck; she “just doesn’t come from Germany.” That, he added, “doesn’t work.” The projects in the climate and transformation fund affect the “economic core of Germany”. If this were to be damaged, it would have problematic consequences for social peace and the political mood in the country.
While the seriousness of the situation is undisputed, it remains completely unclear, even after the ministerial meeting, where the necessary money will come from after the climate and transformation fund is abolished. A wide variety of measures are being debated, from cuts elsewhere in the federal budget, as demanded by the FDP, to tax increases, the establishment of a special climate protection fund based on the model of the 100 billion package for the Bundeswehr, to the suspension or complete abolition of the debt brake. This was suspended for the current year’s federal budget. SPD politician Willingmann said on Monday that he considers it “imperative” to consider the same step for 2024. In addition, the instrument should be “generally reformed”; it was originally “designed for a different situation.” Similar voices come from other politicians from the federal states, increasingly also from those with a CDU party membership such as Saxony-Anhalt’s Prime Minister Reiner Haseloff or Berlin’s Governing Mayor Kai Wegener.
The FDP, however, continues to resist. Without a debt brake, the federal government would “take away its own ability to act in politics,” said General Secretary Bijan Djir-Sarai on Monday in the ZDF morning magazine. Bavaria’s Economics Minister Aiwanger stated that he did not care whether the funds would be made available through a move away from the debt brake or “cutbacks elsewhere,” for example through “savings on citizens’ money.” On Monday, Habeck did not want to commit to a specific path to resolving the crisis. He referred to political mechanisms according to which “everything that is discussed publicly will not happen in the end.” Nevertheless, he does not consider it out of the question that the federal government could also determine an emergency situation for 2024 and thus suspend the debt brake. But you have to do this “politically consensually and legally watertight”.
However, the considerations, examinations and debates should not take too long, emphasized the ministerial group. We need “answers before Christmas,” said Bavarian department head Aiwanger, who also calls for solutions to be sought at the highest political level and across party lines. “The drama is known across party and state boundaries,” he said: “This is not a problem for one person or another, but for all of Germany.” Aiwanger called for a crisis meeting between the Chancellor and the state prime ministers. Habeck also said that it would be “very, very good if Germany came together on this point.” You shouldn’t “lose a lot of time.” According to Willingmann, the economics and energy ministers want to meet again before Christmas and “open up further solution models”.
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