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Finances in the citizen’s hands
In several articles, the Alliance for Democracy has pointed out how inevitable it is, in view of the Euro crisis
and the annual level of new borrowing, that the people will finally have to have their say about the nation’s
finances. Direct democracy is our aim, as described in the
Constitution.
We have always looked a little enviously at our neighbours – Switzerland, where order has prevailed in its
finances since time immemorial. No currency reform, not even a restructuring of debt, because the national and
also the state budgets remained debt-free.
Germany has always been living beyond its means, and even in times of crisis still spends more money than the
public purse collects, because the system ultimately wants it to be so. And so Germany has become a member of
the debt union, which can only await the creeping devaluation of the Euro as a currency. The Swiss Franc is
suffering because of the Euro, but it is still alive – and in pretty good health. Two researchers confirmed:
Switzerland and all its cantons are really in
good order financially.
The economists Patricia Funk (University of Barcelona) and Christina Gathmann (University of Mannheim) investigated
the state finances of all 25 cantons going back over 110 years. The result of their investigations: “The more say
the residents of a canton have on the use of government spending, the better are the public finances in order.”
Now this is indeed a result. This must put the fear of God into politicians in Germany, if these advantaged
persons, who cost a great deal and actually do very little, now expect that they might
lose their privileges.
Especially since our neighbours in France are now going over to the practice of publishing the
financial circumstances of their politicians
on the Internet, which might also be the best thing to do to German politicians.
After all the years during which German politicians have enriched themselves on the tax funds of the people, it is
now time to introduce
genuine, direct democracy.
This would also be beneficial for politics, because the crisis is coming to an end, one way or another, and the
counter-measures taken, such as the debt brake, which cannot work at all, since all budgets in Germany (both at
state and national level) are doctored, will then be nothing more than an amusing sideline to a mistaken policy,
which only now has taken a turn for the better. Let us hope therefore that someone will lend an ear to our
proposals! Let us take Switzerland as our example, just like Norway.
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