Foreigner question: Isn’t this corruptive behavior? You use an emergency law break and then you try to allocate the resources on something completely different

5 comments

1. That is not the problem. The problem is that you allocate it to several different budget years.

   And not problematic in a corruptive but in a constitutional sense.

2. By definition this is not corruption.

3. It’s not corruption, but it has been ruled unconstitutional, so they now have to find other ways to finance the budget.

4. More on this subject from other reputable sources:

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   – Politico (B): [Germany freezes new spending as budget crisis deepens](https://www.politico.eu/article/germany-freeze-spending-budget-crisis-deepen/)
   – Financial Times (A-): [Germany freezes new spending commitments after ‘debt brake’ court ruling](https://www.ft.com/content/7db76385-d2f1-47bb-8b9d-ccf6857ff2b2)
   – Reuters (A+): [Germany freezes new spending commitments as budget woes deepen](https://www.reuters.com/markets/europe/germany-freezes-new-spending-commitments-budget-woes-deepen-2023-11-21/)
   – Local (C-): [Germany freezes parts of budget after court blow](https://www.thelocal.de/20231121/germany-freezes-parts-of-budget-after-court-blow)

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5. I don’t think it was deliberately corrupt: the government was probably well-intentioned. It was, though, illegal, which is why the Constitutional Court put a stop to it.

   The result is an unholy mess, and a PR disaster for the government, but your question basically answers itself: Yes, the fact that the Constitutional Court ruled that the government was breaking the law does indeed mean that the government was breaking the law.

   In this instance, the checks and balances worked as they were supposed to, and the government is forced to obey the rule of law. Of course this is a huge blow to the government’s ambitious plans to invest in eco-friendly projects and give the rail network a much-needed overhaul, but that’s the government’s own fault. It’s now doing what it should have done at the start: either find legal ways of raising the money, or modify the “debt brake” laws with the approval of the Bundestag.