They were called the “bazooka”, the “ka-boom” and the “double ka-boom” — the unprecedented crisis-fighting spending programmes of recent years that Olaf Scholz hoped would seal his place in Germany’s postwar history.
But now the chancellor risks entering the annals for another reason altogether: an accounting trick that the German top court has struck down as illegal — opening a €60bn hole in the country’s public finances.
“It may have been invented by Scholz’s officials, but ultimately he’s responsible,” said Carsten Linnemann, general secretary of the opposition Christian Democrats. “He’s the chancellor. The buck stops with him.”
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