At the center of this smokescreen policy: Markus Söder, CSU leader, Prime Minister of Bavaria and political survivalist with a keen sense for populist smoke grenades. During his appearance on the ARD program Maybrit Illner, he twice resorted to fleeing to the right – not to dock politically there, but to nip any criticism in the bud. The trillions in debt? According to Söder, a pipe dream, brought into the world by the AfD. That was the end of the debate for him – according to the motto: If it comes from the right, it can't be right.

This argumentation is as transparent as it is dangerous. Because the fact is: The figure of one trillion euros in new debt is by no means exaggerated – it is even set too low. If you realistically add up all the budget holes, special pots and arms spending, you easily end up with over two trillion euros in the next twelve years. And this is not AfD propaganda, but a sober assessment shared by renowned economists, specialist journalists and also voices from the middle of the political spectrum. Söder's claim that the AfD exclusively "threw this figure into the room" is at best a protective claim – and at worst a deliberate misleading of the public.

The Bundestag has long since created the legal basis to make these mountains of debt a reality. 
The so-called "special infrastructure fund" alone comprises 500 billion euros – a gigantic shadow debt, far removed from public control. In addition, there are the annual 44 billion euros that are due at two percent defense spending – expenditures that go beyond the debt brake. If you follow the currently discussed three percent course, we are talking about over 100 billion euros per year. And the 50 billion euros per year, which are possible anyway within the framework of the debt brake, are on top of that.

In the end, there will be up to 2.3 trillion euros of new debt in twelve years. Or, for everyone with a view to the next federal election: around 750 billion euros in one legislative period alone, if there is an alliance of the CDU, CSU and SPD – an alliance that is currently in preparation and whose financing should be questioned sooner rather than later.

But instead of seriously discussing these figures, Söder wedges back – with the argument that the reference to these debts comes "very strongly from the far right". Particularly perfidious: Even when Maybrit Illner pointed out that the SPD and Greens had already proposed a 500 billion program for the credit-financed modernization of the infrastructure before the election – exactly what the Union has now taken over – Söder categorically denies any takeover.

Habeck is still the worst economics minister of all time, Söder let it be known, but that does not mean that his ideas have been used. 
All just "right interpretation". The fact that in reality there has long been a silent takeover of red-green financial plans is deliberately concealed.

Illner countered in disbelief with a simple "Really?!" - and probably spoke from the soul of millions of viewers.

Söder's strategy is clear: Anyone who criticizes is "right-wing". He who calculates divides. Anyone who asks delegitimizes. It is the classic perpetrator-victim reversal in political packaging. 
Instead of facing reality – namely that the Union has thrown its own debt morality overboard – the discussion is being defamed.

That's not just cowardly. It is a frontal attack on political discourse. Anyone who only evaluates criticism by party affiliation has long since stopped making politics for the people – and is starting to conduct politics against the debate itself, hasn't it?


























Author: Tom Weyerman
Source: Presse_News
Image: CSU leader Markus / Söder/Maybrit Illner, ZDF