(Reuters) – Germany’s Alternative for Germany (AfD) party will file a complaint to the constitutional court next week over plans to raise new debt through a special fund, the Rheinische Post newspaper said on Friday, citing a senior AfD lawmaker.
Germany’s would-be next chancellor, conservative leader Friedrich Merz, and the Social Democrats (SPD) with whom he is trying to form a government, plan to raise new debt and throw out restrictive borrowing rules in a fiscal policy sea-change.
Merz and the SPD want to create a 500-billion-euro ($542 billion) infrastructure fund and scrap constitutional limits on borrowing known as the ‘debt brake’ in the outgoing parliament.
But the AfD has slammed the moves as an “orgy of debt”, questioning the legitimacy of the outgoing parliament to take major decisions, while the Left party has also threatened legal action.
“The old Bundestag is at best legitimate to act in emergencies, but not to set fundamental course for the future,” the AfD’s Stephan Brandner was quoted as saying.
The Bundestag lower house will vote on the measures on March 18 before the formation of a new parliament on March 25, where both moves could get blocked by an enlarged contingent of AfD and leftist lawmakers.
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(Writing by Matthias Williams, Editing by Miranda Murray)
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