Berlin: Christian Lindner, Germany's Finance Minister, defended a supplementary budget of 60 billion euros (USD 67 billion) for climate protection and digitization. "By no means is it a matter of funding general projects," Lindner said, emphasising that the funds would only be used to mitigate the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.

"The fund's resources are used strategically, for transformative investments," Lindner was quoted as saying during the Bundestag debate on the supplementary budget, which was approved by the new Olaf Scholz government on Monday. Opposition parties charged the government with violating the country's constitution by approving the reallocation of unused funds intended to combat the Covid-19 pandemic.

Due to the pandemic, Germany's so-called debt brake, which requires federal and state budgets to be generally balanced without borrowing revenues, was temporarily suspended but will resume in 2023. Lindner confirmed the government's intention to resume compliance with the debt ceiling, noting that many investments had been halted due to the pandemic. "We must not waste time in the transformation process," he added, "because not only people, but also economic development, require a boost."

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