The federal government needs a two-thirds majority to ratify the agreement on more budgetary discipline. "It won’t get it without the grunen-lander," trittin said. "Angela merkel must move toward the greens or she will drive her project up the wall."
Almost all elements of the pact are already regulated in eu community law. "Much more important are measures to tax the financial markets, initiatives for more investment and to reduce old debts," said trittin. "We need a european debt repayment pact like the one proposed by the economic experts."Trittin also called for interest rate cuts for federal states through germany bonds.
Trittin called on the federal government to make a fresh start in german-french relations. So merkel should propose to france’s new president francois hollande to ratify the pact together. "This won’t work until the fall," he explained.
In addition, merkel and hollande should jointly take the initiative for a financial transaction tax. "If germany goes down this path together with france, we will very quickly find alliance partners throughout europe."This could create room for the necessary investments in the crisis-stricken EU countries – even without new debt.
Trittin accused the chancellor of hypocrisy. "Mrs. Merkel preaches water and drinks wine to the rest of europe," he said. "Germany under black-yellow expects other european countries to save even in the crisis."Germany is not saving even after the domestic crisis. Since the 2008 financial crisis, public debt has risen from 63 percent to 84 percent next year.
Trittin called for swift ratification of permanent euro bailout fund ESM. The fiscal pact, on the other hand, should not be ratified until the unresolved issues have been resolved and it has been supplemented with growth assumptions. "There is no junktim between the ratification of the ESM and the fiscal pact"." The coalition wants to do both together.