by Thomas Kolbe
The transformation of the German economy into a green “transition economy” has failed. The consequences of a socialist command economy are reflected in the surging deficits of public budgets. It is a disaster that lays bare the full extent of incompetence and ideological blindness in German politics.
You are all surely familiar with the endlessly repeated phrase: “The budget is the sovereign right of parliament.” Let us ignore for a moment this faintly monarchical undertone, which in the orbit of our democracy’s party cartel translates performatively into an attitude of rule, and instead look at what awaits us in the years ahead.
It will not surprise you: the political menu that the transformation duo Merz-Klingbeil will serve comes with a bill you would otherwise only expect at five-star restaurants. Your plate will arrive largely untouched, but your wallet will be emptied in one stroke — by an outrageously high amount.
On Tuesday, the master of debt, Lars Klingbeil, presented the key figures of the federal budget. For the current year, net new borrowing is set at €98 billion — significantly higher than originally planned. Klingbeil’s budget thus remains marginally below the magical €100 billion debt threshold — one does not want to stir up too much dust in the 2026 super election year. That this figure is somewhat massaged will become apparent in the final accounts, after the elections, when the true fiscal situation is debated in parliament.
What could not yet be achieved this year will certainly be achieved in 2027: Berlin will then break the sound barrier and add another €110 billion to the debt pile of €2.7 trillion within a single year. The debt party will really get going — raise your cups — by 2030, annual new borrowing is expected to reach at least €150 billion. The debt disaster is gaining momentum. Yet so far we have spoken only of the federal budget. Most media coverage focuses solely on the damage inflicted by the top tier of the party-state. However, the supporting pillars of the state — cities and municipalities — are also consuming their substance and living on credit.
Last year, the combined new debt of states and municipalities amounted to €38 billion — out in the provinces, they are hosting their own debt party. The fact that Klingbeil, with the help of his debt-financed special funds, allows a few modest fiscal crumbs to rain down on municipal budgets is met with little more than a shrug, given the catastrophic state of their finances. The consequences of migration chaos and deindustrialization driven by the degrowth agenda are felt first and foremost in local coffers: in former industrial centers, people are now learning what it means to place ideology above reason.
But relief is on the way: a major raid is on the agenda. New taxes — higher levies on tobacco, alcohol, and sugar — are planned, along with increases in inheritance tax and a hefty debate on wealth taxation. After all, anything goes in the land of grand transformation, as long as one thing is ensured: the ever-expanding, ever more expensive state apparatus must be secured at all costs. As mentioned: budget policy is a sovereign right — and the sovereign is now reaching ever deeper into increasingly empty pockets.
I am aware that it may be difficult to imagine Lars Klingbeil as the provisional endpoint of a royal lineage. Yet his spending behavior — set to load at least €800 billion in new debt by 2030 — resembles Caesar-like megalomania: what does the world cost when one can help oneself either to the middle class or to the bond markets, with the European Central Bank as a backstop?
Incidentally, Germany’s debt-to-GDP ratio is expected to rise from the current 63 percent to at least 85 percent by 2030. Not included in these figures are the state’s obligations under pension and retirement systems, which are by no means economically secured. Also excluded are roughly €600 billion in additional debt hidden in more than 20 so-called special funds — Berlin’s off-book shadow budgets — thus kept out of public debate.
The two debt monarchs, Friedrich Merz and Lars Klingbeil, would in principle stand naked if not for the apathetic German taxpayer. He is being burdened with the entire weight of societal transformation, environmentalism, and the multicultural catastrophe — yet too many citizens continue to pay this moral indulgence thoughtlessly and without protest. After all, everything is supposedly at stake: sometimes it is the salvation of the global climate, sometimes the protection of our democracy from corrosive patriotic conservatism — that party spoiler of Berlin’s hippie politics, whose call for a return to bourgeois society is drowned out by the shrill noise of a hysterically overdriven media apparatus.
It is nearly impossible to break through this iron curtain of ideological media work and point to the true severity of Germany’s budgetary situation. But one crucial observation must be made: spending dynamics are out of control. While federal expenditures grew by an average of 2 to at most 3 percent annually over the past decade, we are now seeing an increase of 6 percent last year and likely 7 to 8 percent in 2027. Keep an eye on the bond markets and observe how long the European Central Bank can maintain the illusion of limitless debt financing without the market eventually giving a thumbs-down. Mario Draghi’s famous phrase “Whatever it takes” should remain front of mind in the coming months: it is an unmistakable invitation to inflate away fiscal problems.