After tough negotiations, the traffic light coalition agreed on a draft budget. Now this is being called into question again. This is causing the opposition to shake their heads.
In view of the new need for discussions on the federal budget for 2025, criticism of the traffic light coalition is growing. “There is actually no budget agreement at all,” said the deputy leader of the Union parliamentary group, Mathias Middelberg (CDU), to the editorial network Germany. Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) had “once again allowed himself to be led astray by the Chancellor (Olaf Scholz)”.
“As with the repealed supplementary budget for 2021, which the current Chancellor had prepared while still Finance Minister, the Chancellor’s current ideas for plugging the budget hole are also highly problematic from a constitutional point of view,” criticized financial politician Middelberg.
The traffic light coalition may have to fundamentally renegotiate its laboriously achieved compromise on the 2025 federal budget. Two scientific assessments of planned projects have shown that “further discussions within the federal government and in the context of parliamentary deliberations are necessary,” the Finance Ministry said on Thursday.
Minister Lindner (FDP) had commissioned the review because there were doubts as to whether individual projects of the traffic light coalition in the federal budget for the coming year were constitutionally and economically viable. These projects were intended to halve the financing gap of 17 billion euros that still existed after the negotiations between the traffic light coalition leaders.
Left warns of social cuts
However, the reports have now revealed legal and economic doubts about the plans. From the perspective of the Ministry of Finance, austerity measures must now be negotiated again. “Measures to improve the accuracy of social spending, on which no political agreement has yet been reached, could also reduce the need for action,” said ministry sources.
Left Party leader Janine Wissler warned the traffic light coalition against cuts in the social sector. “Instead of pushing for further social cuts, Lindner should get the money from where there is enough of it,” she told the newspapers of the Funke media group. “The reintroduction of the wealth tax would bring the states additional billions for social welfare and investments in the future, appropriate taxation of excess profits and the closing of tax loopholes would bring billions in revenue to the federal government.”
Source: Stern
I have been working in the news industry for over 6 years, first as a reporter and now as an editor. I have covered politics extensively, and my work has appeared in major newspapers and online news outlets around the world. In addition to my writing, I also contribute regularly to 24 Hours World.
