German Bundestag, Plenarprotokoll 20/181, pp. 23585-23586.
Right honorable Frau President. Right honorable colleagues. Dear savers.
I affirm that the FDP and the Union have taken over our slogan from the first reading, “Cash is Printed Freedom” – very nice!
Enrico
Komning (AfD): Excellent! Well done!
Our goal is namely to maintain cash as the only legal means of payment, and bind the introduction of the digital euro to a referendum vote according to Article 20, paragraph 2 of the Basic Law.
The Union cannot do that; since the AfD is the only party which wants to introduce the popular referendum at the Federal level. The Union is thus restricted in its possibilities and thus “only” demands that the German Bundestag needs to agree to the introduction of a digital euro. More, the Union cannot do.
The Ampel coalition is still much worse: They want to allow introduction of the digital euro by the ECB without any parliamentary control.
Currencies – this, the German Currency Union of 1 July 1990 has shown – need to be a matter of the entire people,
Enrico Komning (AfD): That is true democracy!
Marianne Schieder (SPD): Of that, you have no idea!
Enrico
Komning (AfD): Yes, direct democracy!
and plainly not the decision of technocrats. Yet the ECB consists only of technocrats, and presently Germany as the largest nation in the ECB Council does not have a vote.
Frank Schäffler
(FDP): No, we have a vote!
For many months, no vote; the voting rights rotate every four months.
In the U.S.A. also the risks are recognized and the central bank by law is forbidden three points, among others: First, to issue a digital dollar without express approval of the Congress; second, to issue the digital dollar direct to an individual person; and third, to give up control over the digital currency policy to unelected technocrats. If indeed our hegemon U.S.A. warns of the surveillance by means of digital currencies, then there must be something to it.
The digital euro is from our viewpoint a further step in the direction of the virtualization of money – away from the human haptic
(The
speaker holds up a piece of paper)
to a virtual abstraction.
Jens Zimmermann (SPD): Yet you
think it is not too big! What then is done with 200 euro bills?
Together with the EU-ID, a possible programming ability and a social credit system, some horror visions could become true.
Frank
Schäffler (FDP): Your friends in China do it!
The authorities could limit where, when and what one may be paid, they could observe any transaction and take note.
Johannes Steiniger (CDU/CSU): Nonsense!
Armand Zorn (SPD): Simply
just nonsense!
The state could connect the account with the CO2 exhaust and the social credit score.
Johannes
Steiniger (CDU/CSU): Are you still reciting correctly?
Yet the ultimate horror would be that account could be completely frozen. We do not want all of that, since freedom is the only thing that counts!
Jens
Zimmermann (SPD): Do the people in the Ukraine also think that?
For all who think that the euro is a success story: The euro since its existence has lost 80 percent of its value. An 80 percent loss of value, that is a catastrophe for the saver. The measurement of value in euros is as absurd
Vice-president Katrin Göring-Eckardt: Herr
König.
as if one wants to measure length with a rubber band.
Vice-president Katrin Göring-Eckardt: Come to an end.
We are thus in favor of the measurement of value by money
with a fixed, defined connection
Vice-president Katrin
Göring-Eckardt: Your speaking time is up.
to natural resources.
Vice-president
Katrin Göring-Eckardt: Your speaking time, Herr König, is up.
Many thanks for your attention.
[trans: tem]
