The eight billion euros needed for motorways and Deutsche Bahn are at stake. The financing is now shaky again. Is there a risk of a new budget dispute?
Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) does not see the loans for motorways and the rail network agreed in the coalition as a done deal. “The granting of loans to the railway and motorway companies is one of the proposals from the Chancellery to close the remaining need for action of eight billion euros,” Lindner told the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung”.
“Whether and what is possible is expressly subject to review. I will involve an external expert and the external scientific advisory board of my ministry in the matter. I rule out constitutional risks and uneconomical decisions,” said the minister.
Last Friday, after long negotiations, negotiators from the SPD, FDP and Greens agreed on a budget for 2025. The idea of replacing infrastructure subsidies with loans made the agreement possible in the first place, because the remaining gap could not be filled in any other way.
If this approach does not prove to be viable, “we will have to find another solution,” Lindner said in the newspaper interview. “In any case, there will be more work to be done before the end of the budget discussions at the end of November, as figures on economic development, for example, still need to be updated.”
Source: Stern
