Germany's Scholz tells AfD, playing down COVID risks a dangerous lie

German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz on Tuesday labelled far-right deputies as liars for talking down the coronavirus pandemic's health risks, and defended a decision to finance related recovery measures with record new borrowing.

A debt brake clause in Germany's constitution restricts the issuance of new debt by limiting the federal budget deficit to 0.35% of economic output. The Bundestag lower house of parliament on Tuesday suspended the brake for 2021 to allow the government net new borrowing of up to 180 billion euros ($218 billion). Lawmakers had already suspended it for this year, clearing borrowing of up to 218 billion euros, a post-war record high.

Addressing criticism of the suspensions by lawmakers of the far-right AfD party, who said the virus's health risks had been exaggerated, Scholz said the government had received top marks from international organisations for its crisis response. Doing nothing was not an option as this would lead to even higher costs for the country.

"With the programmes that we launched this year... we have dealt with the economic and social consequences of the crisis much better than many, many had predicted," Scholz told the Bundestag. "We have chosen this path and we will continue it."

Playing down the pandemic's serious health risks was a dangerous lie, Scholz added. "It's a great catastrophe what you're doing here because you're telling the citizens of this country something wrong," Scholz said to applause from his centre-left Social Democrats and Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives.