Finance Minister Christian Lindner has called on his colleagues to save. He also means Olaf Scholz – and he suspects that his idea could displease the chancellor.
In the budget dispute of the traffic light coalition, Finance Minister Christian Lindner does not stop at Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz and his chancellor’s office.
“I believe that we have to save for the 2024 budget in the area of government in the narrower sense,” said the FDP leader on Wednesday evening on the ARD program “Maischberger”. Scholz is unlikely to be pleased with the concrete move: Lindner is questioning the planned new building next to the Chancellery for around 777 million euros.
“I believe that in times of more home office and location-flexible work, a new building next to the chancellery, which costs at least 800 million euros, is unnecessary,” said the finance minister on the program. The Chancellery initially declined to comment.
Extension of the Chancellery has long been the subject of criticism
The background to Lindner’s initiative is the dispute within the coalition over the budget for the coming year. The specialist ministers have announced additional requests of around 70 billion euros, for which the finance minister sees no leeway if the debt brake is adhered to and tax increases are avoided. The FDP leader attests the federal government a spending problem and demands that ministers and the chancellor’s office renounce it. Only when that has been achieved will he present his draft budget to the cabinet.
The planned extension of the Chancellery has long been the subject of criticism. According to estimates from government circles last autumn, the sandstone building with around 400 offices will cost around 177 million euros more than originally planned. When the decision was made to build the new building in 2019, 600 million euros were estimated.
The new building is said to be more expensive than the actual Chancellery building, which the then Chancellor Gerhard Schröder (SPD) moved into in 2001. Scholz had publicly defended the new building last summer. “I believe that such a long-prepared plan, which is now very far advanced, must also be completed,” he said.
From the government’s point of view, the new building is necessary because the workforce in the Chancellery has grown significantly over the past two decades. According to September data, there were 770 employees, 600 of whom squeezed into the Chancellery, which was designed for only 400 employees. The remaining 170 were spread across three other locations in Berlin.
Lindner zu Scholz: “I think he will be displeased”
Lindner argued that since the corona pandemic, location-flexible work has become more normal. At least in the Ministry of Finance, many employees now work from home or on the go. It follows that office space can be used differently and limited. “So why such an expensive new building?” said Lindner. Referring to Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD), he added: “I think he will be displeased that I’ve suggested this here, but that’s my job.”
In the fall, the chancellor’s office argued that concentrating jobs in one place would increase productivity. In view of the crisis, one looked at what an exit from the construction project would mean, “but did not see that as an alternative”.
According to previous plans, the arched building should be finished in 2028. It is to be built in the current Chancellor’s Garden on the other side of the Spree, i.e. opposite the main building, and close the so-called “Bundle of the Federation” to the west. This ensemble of buildings also includes two buildings of the Bundestag, which adjoin the Chancellery in the east.
Source: Stern
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