Is the traffic light coalition finally coming to terms with the budget dispute? Dissatisfaction is growing. The Union considers the coalition’s entire future timetable to be questionable.
SPD chairman Lars Klingbeil is calling for a quick agreement in the renewed dispute between the traffic light coalition over the federal budget for the coming year. “This whole performance that we experienced last week was completely unnecessary, it was superfluous, it has made the country even more uncertain. It is the job of a federal government to hand over a budget to parliament,” said Klingbeil in an ARD summer interview. Dissatisfaction with the government has arisen. Klingbeil said: “Clear expectation: the budget must be ready in the government next week.”
Agreement announced by mid-August
The dispute has flared up again in recent days. The background to this are plans that were intended to reduce the funding gap in the budget by a total of eight billion euros. Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) had commissioned reports on the matter due to legal and economic concerns. These partially confirmed the concerns, but also showed ways to implement at least some of the measures.
Lindner, Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) and Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck (Greens) want to reach an agreement and bring about a cabinet decision by mid-August.
Klingbeil: “There is no right to laziness”
The SPD chairman also commented on the debate about the citizen’s allowance. He says that during discussions, many people find parts of the citizen’s allowance unfair. “But we’re not talking about, for example, 800,000 people who work and still receive citizen’s allowance because they earn so little money at work that they get something on top,” said Klingbeil.
“What affects people’s sense of justice is when there are suddenly 16,000 people who refuse to cooperate with the state. They take advantage of the state’s solidarity, sit back and say, I don’t have to do anything. And you have to tell them very clearly that they have no right to be lazy.”
Lindner feels “not addressed” by the Chancellor’s message
In the dispute over the budget, Scholz had previously expressed his displeasure and made it clear that a legal opinion on the draft budget did indeed allow loans from the railway and the motorway company as a means of financing. Lindner said he could not see this as criticism of the Chancellor himself. “I do not feel addressed by the Chancellor’s message,” the FDP chairman told the Funke Media Group.
Scholz added in an interview with “Zeit Online”: “It remains a mystery how the actually clear vote of the legal opinion could temporarily be interpreted in a completely wrong way.” Lindner had expressed doubts as to whether around eight billion euros for rail and highways could be financed with loans.
Federal Finance Minister also looks at solar subsidies
Lindner also called for a faster end to subsidies for renewable energies. “As far as solar subsidies are concerned, there is an urgent need for action. Subsidies have increased massively,” he told the Funke Media Group. “But there is no longer any need for widespread subsidies because they are profitable. This must be ended as quickly as possible.”
Lindner referred to the coalition’s decision to stop subsidies for renewable energies at the latest when coal is phased out. In his view, it could be much quicker, he said. “I have exempted the new small system on the roof of the house from VAT, that is already enough support.” The coal phase-out has been agreed for 2038. The traffic light coalition had planned to bring the date forward “ideally” to 2030.
Lindner warned of a new debt crisis in Europe if Germany took on significantly more loans and called on the coalition to take further steps to restructure the welfare state. “We need more empathy for the truly socially disadvantaged and needy – but on the other hand, more consequences for free riders who want money from the state even though they could work, or who are staying in our country illegally.”
Union believes more time is needed for budget discussions
The deputy chairman of the Union parliamentary group, Mathias Middelberg, considers the timetable for the budget discussions in the Bundestag to be questionable. The discussions on the budget for 2025, scheduled for September, should be postponed if the traffic light politicians do not present an “honest plan” in time, the CDU politician told the German Press Agency.
Lindner’s assumption that only a financing gap of five billion euros would have to be closed was “far from reality,” criticised Middelberg. In fact, of the 17 billion euros that had been earmarked in the previous planning as so-called global spending cuts, at least 13.4 billion euros would still have to be financed. And even that is a very optimistic calculation.
Middelberg calls for postponement of budget week
Although spending cuts of between one and two percent were planned in previous budget years, this time they are significantly higher. This year has also already shown that higher outflows of funds are to be expected. A global spending cut is a way of setting savings targets without any cuts being made in individual budget items.
It is also anticipated that not all of the budgeted funds will be spent anyway. Overall, the budget for next year has a volume of 480.6 billion euros – around eight billion less than this year. “Without a significant reduction in the planned expenditure cuts, the first reading of the budget in the Bundestag, scheduled for September, must be postponed,” demanded the Union parliamentary group vice-chair.
Source: Stern
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