German opposition criticizes historic budget

"We can be proud that we have reached this goal together," German Chancellor Angela Merkel told lawmakers on Wednesday, referring to her government's achievement of ensuring that the country won't take on any new debt in the coming year.

The lower house of parliament - the Bundestag - convened for a debate on the issue, which Merkel's center-right, center-left coalition government has touted as a sign of the country's economic strength.

The debt landmark projected for 2015 is the first time the government will be without new debt since 1969. For this year, it is expected to borrow only 6.6 billion euros ($9.14 billion).

Pointing to Germany's track record in recent years as a eurozone leader with a stable economy during a crippling financial crisis, Merkel emphasized the need for other eurozone members to meet their fiscal responsibilities, too.

"Meeting our commitments must finally become a trademark of the eurozone as opposed to [how it's been] in the past," she said.

The remark was a veiled reference to eurozone partner France, who announced on Wednesday, that it would not be able to meet the EU's national deficit ceiling by 2017 as it had previously contended. Under the European Commission's corrective arm of the Stability and Growth Pact, member states' deficits must mot exceed 3 percent of GDP. France has projected a 4.43 percent deficit for the coming year.

Opposition: 'We're eating into our capital'

While the chancellor had contended that the new budget was not a "means to an end," but rather a way to ensure future stability, opposition leaders warned of the damage that only a year or two of no new debt could incur on Germany's well-being.

"You are forgoing everything that amounts to a future for a very doubtful benchmark," the parliamentary group leader of the post-communist Left party, Gregor Gysi, told parliament, listing off the areas that would not see increased investment: social welfare, the digital divide and infrastructure.

The Left leader was backed by Greens party leader Katrin Göring-Eckardt, who questioned the lack of investment.

"Your budget is a bet on a good business activity. If it stays good, you'll only run up debts for the social funding," Göring-Eckardt said. But she warned that "if it goes bad," money would have to be borrowed from the banks.

"Germany is eating into its capital," she added.

A prominent member of the center-left coalition partner, the SPD, Thomas Oppermann, also expressed concern about delaying investment and called for policies that wouldn't put an extra burden on young Germans.

In response to these criticisms, Chancellor Merkel contended that the budget was a means to ensuring future stability, not a "means to an end."

kms/hc (AFP, dpa)