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'Prosperous years in Germany are over' - AfD blast 2026 budget, warn of €1 trln debt spiral as Bundestag approves €524.5 bln bill

'Prosperous years in Germany are over' - AfD blast 2026 budget, warn of €1 trln debt spiral as Bundestag approves €524.5 bln bill

"Alternative for Germany (AfD) lawmakers lashed out at the proposed 2026 budget on Friday, as the Bundestag approved over €180 billion ($208 billion) in new debt. "The prosperous years in Germany are over, people need to be told this, due to the dismantling of the steel industry, the coal industry, the lignite industry, the chemical industry, and now even the automotive industry," Kay Gottschalk stated. "You have let this budget degenerate into a shell game and should truly be ashamed at this point. You have sinned against the people up there and against the economy," he continued. Meanwhile, Stephan Brandner called the budget 'a full-throttle crash into a wall,' warning that Germany's debt could reach 'one trillion euros' by 2029. "What our country has accumulated over the past 76 years, you are adding half of that again in the next four years. Whoever even remotely understands this must necessarily reject this budget," he stressed The lawmaker also highlighted the long-term burden of interest payments tied to the borrowing. "In the coming years and decades, citizens will pay tens of billions of euros monthly just to service the interest. The BlackRockers will probably be pleased. At some point, the debts have to be repaid. That is not happening," he said. The 2026 budget package sets total spending at €524.5 billion ($608 billion) and provides over €97.7 billion ($113 billion) in new loans - about €8 billion ($9.3 billion) more than center-right coalition experts had projected. The bill authorises borrowing of roughly €180 billion, the second‑highest level in German history outside the pandemic, and about $25 billion more than this year. Germany's debt brake limits annual borrowing to 0.35% of GDP, a threshold the government is again set to exceed."

'Prosperous years in Germany are over' - AfD blast 2026 budget, warn of €1 trln debt spiral as Bundestag approves €524.5 bln bill

'Prosperous years in Germany are over' - AfD blast 2026 budget, warn of €1 trln debt spiral as Bundestag approves €524.5 bln bill

"Alternative for Germany (AfD) lawmakers lashed out at the proposed 2026 budget on Friday, as the Bundestag approved over €180 billion ($208 billion) in new debt. "The prosperous years in Germany are over, people need to be told this, due to the dismantling of the steel industry, the coal industry, the lignite industry, the chemical industry, and now even the automotive industry," Kay Gottschalk stated. "You have let this budget degenerate into a shell game and should truly be ashamed at this point. You have sinned against the people up there and against the economy," he continued. Meanwhile, Stephan Brandner called the budget 'a full-throttle crash into a wall,' warning that Germany's debt could reach 'one trillion euros' by 2029. "What our country has accumulated over the past 76 years, you are adding half of that again in the next four years. Whoever even remotely understands this must necessarily reject this budget," he stressed The lawmaker also highlighted the long-term burden of interest payments tied to the borrowing. "In the coming years and decades, citizens will pay tens of billions of euros monthly just to service the interest. The BlackRockers will probably be pleased. At some point, the debts have to be repaid. That is not happening," he said. The 2026 budget package sets total spending at €524.5 billion ($608 billion) and provides over €97.7 billion ($113 billion) in new loans - about €8 billion ($9.3 billion) more than center-right coalition experts had projected. The bill authorises borrowing of roughly €180 billion, the second‑highest level in German history outside the pandemic, and about $25 billion more than this year. Germany's debt brake limits annual borrowing to 0.35% of GDP, a threshold the government is again set to exceed."