Germany’s debt brake and the art of fantasy budgeting
The country is tiring of its self-imposed fiscal straitjacket
![Olaf Scholz, Robert Habeck, and Christian Lindner take part in a press conference on the 2025 budget.](https://cdn.statically.io/img/www.economist.com/cdn-cgi/image/width=1424,quality=80,format=auto/content-assets/images/20240713_EUP507.jpg)
Like A SQUIRMING Harry Houdini, Germany’s government has once again wriggled its way out of a straitjacket it applied to itself. On July 5th, having blown through one self-imposed deadline to conclude a draft budget for 2025, the coalition’s negotiators pulled an all-nighter to avoid missing a second. The result, said a bleary-eyed Olaf Scholz, Germany’s chancellor, was a “work of art”.
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This article appeared in the Europe section of the print edition under the headline “Wriggling out of the straitjacket”
Europe July 13th 2024
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