Merkel’s rival channels Macron with call to spend

Bloomberg

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s main domestic challenger, Martin Schulz, joined international criticism of Germany’s budget surplus as he sought to gain an opening 10 weeks out from federal elections.
Schulz, a Social Democrat whose party has been Merkel’s coalition partner for the past four years, pledged on Sunday to guarantee that surplus revenue would go towards spending on infrastructure if he wins the Chancellery on Sept. 24. That sentiment echoed French President Emmanuel Macron, who last week called Germany out for doing too little to address its trade surplus.
Merkel’s response in both cases has been to say that her Christian Democratic-led coalition with the SPD has already increased spending “massively” on roads, broadband expansion and pre-schools. She says the greatest challenge to allocating more funds to new projects lies in removing bureaucratic barriers, specifically in the planning process.
“At this point we can’t spend the money that we have,” Merkel said in an interview with ARD television on Sunday. “I don’t see the main problem as the question of whether there should be more money — you can and you must do that—but rather in accelerating planning.”
Merkel, whose public appointments dry up this week before she goes on summer vacation, holds a lead over Schulz’s SPD of 13-17 percentage points. With a short campaign only due to begin from about mid-August, the former European Parliament president is left seeking a silver bullet to topple the chancellor and stop her from winning a record-tying fourth term.
Merkel reprised the spending theme in front of a business group on Monday, telling them in the Baltic port city of Stralsund, home to her constituency, that she’ll press ahead with her trade agenda and seek full employment in Germany by 2025.
“Whoever disrupts global supply chains, or even breaks them, will eventually harm all those involved,” Merkel said.