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Scholz asked parliament in June to suspend the
debt brake and allow record new borrowing of 217.8 billion euros
($258.14 billion) as Berlin tries to help companies and
consumers recover more quickly from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Scholz, chancellor candidate for his centre-left Social
Democrats in next year's federal election, said at an SPD event
in Berlin late on Wednesday that the government would have to
abandon the debt brake in 2021, too.
The move indicates he is trying to permanently move Germany away
from its image as Europe's austerity champion and become one of
the euro zone's biggest spenders before the election.
But his proposal sparked fierce criticism from Merkel's chief
budget lawmaker Eckhardt Rehberg.
"Suspending the debt brake must not become a habit. We have to
get back to the regular debt limit as quickly as possible,"
Rehberg told Reuters on Thursday.
There was still no agreement in the coalition on whether the
government should ask parliament to suspend the debt brake again
in 2021 and allow higher spending, he said.
"It's the Bundestag that will pass the budget for 2021 in
December, not the finance minister in August," Rehberg said,
pointing to signs the economy was recovering and tax revenues
developing better than expected.
He made clear, however, that Merkel's CDU/CSU bloc doesn't want
to unleash an austerity program in an election year.
"With such a statement, the chancellor candidate is opening the
race for additional spending," said Otto Fricke, chief budget
lawmaker from the opposition pro-business Free Democrats.
(Reporting by Michael Nienaber; Editing by Michelle Martin and
Madeline Chambers)
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