Juso chairwoman Rosenthal criticized the compromise between the traffic light coalition and the Union on a special fund for the Bundeswehr as insufficient. According to her, investments are also needed in many other areas. She calls for the abolition of the debt brake and an increase in inheritance tax.
Federal Juso Chairwoman Jessica Rosenthal rejects the compromise between the coalition and the Union to better equip the Bundeswehr. "I am not willing to tinker with the Basic Law for a special fund for the Bundeswehr, although the mistake lies elsewhere," writes the SPD member of the Bundestag in a guest article for "Spiegel". She was "not ready to agree to an amendment to the Basic Law because we lack the courage for a real reform of our budgetary policy".
Rosenthal writes that she is not rejecting the 100 billion euro special fund out of principle, but because circumventing the debt brake is "too small a solution for a much bigger problem". Democracy must be defended externally, but also internally. A special fund for the Bundeswehr alone would not go far enough. "What should we answer when nurses ask why 100 billion euros are there for the Bundeswehr, but no money for better pay or a fully funded hospital infrastructure," asked the Juso boss.
It is "completely understandable when parents ask why their children do not want to use the school toilet because there is supposedly no money for the renovation". The honest answer to that is that there is money. "But we'd rather stick to the debt brake than invest in our society," complained Rosenthal. The state needs more financial leeway, she writes, and called for the abolition of the debt brake and an increase in inheritance tax.
The Union and the traffic light coalition had agreed on the legal basis for the planned special fund late on Sunday evening after weeks of wrangling. In principle, this gives the green light for weapon orders from the armaments industry on a large scale. SPD faction leader Rolf Mützenich had said in Berlin before a faction meeting that the coalition would act together in the vote. He hopes that the SPD will largely agree, but he will not tell any member of parliament how he or she should vote.
