Another idea for the debt brake: What if they set strict limits, like a max of 3% for 7 years, or 5% for 5 years. Literally, you have a "bank of GDP percent points". You can gain them by running a surplus and spend them by running a deficit. Start the initial bank balance at 25%.

    > but I guarantee that this action will be brought up again and again by populists in the future, as an example of how the "elites" don't care about democracy.

This is a good point that I didn't think about.