Three billion package
Suddenly the dispute over aid to Ukraine escalates
Will Ukraine get billions in additional aid? A few weeks before the election, the parties are divided over the question of how the money can be raised.
Is the Chancellor campaigning on the backs of Ukraine? It’s a harsh accusation that is being made against him – and Olaf Scholz doesn’t want to let it stand.
“I have the feeling”said the Chancellor at an event “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung” (FAZ), “At the moment the German people are being lied to with the greatest intensity”. From whom? “From everyone who tries to avoid one question: How do we pay for it?”
That is the big question. Just a few weeks before the federal election, a violent conflict has broken out over the expansion of military support for Ukraine.
“Olaf Scholz thrashes about like a drowning man”FDP leader Christian Lindner now counters the Chancellor’s accusation of lying and accuses him of playing off pensioners against people in Ukraine. Green Chancellor candidate Robert Habeck thinks so “irritating when other professional opinions are defamed as lies”. He also criticizes the fact that aid to Ukraine is being played off against social cohesion. And Scholz? Claims for himself and the SPD that he has presented the only solution that does not come at the expense of pensioners or municipalities.
What options are on the table
Essentially it’s about three billion euros and the question of how this should be raised. The dispute is also so confusing because there is still no budget for the current year, and there won’t be one any time soon. Although there is a common will to approve the additional billions before the federal election on February 23rd, there are at least three different options as to how this could be achieved in this legally confusing situation. But since all sides are currently insisting on their respective positions, the billions are not finding their way to Kiev.
From the perspective of the Union, the Greens and the FDP, the billions could be raised without additional loans. Scholz and the SPD see it differently. They argue that new loans are necessary because otherwise the money would have to come from somewhere else. Scholz also refers to one “unfinanced budget gap” in the double-digit billions. That means: The check for aid to Ukraine must also be covered, but not by cuts in pensions or infrastructure.
The Chancellor is therefore relying on a so-called excess resolution, which would make it possible to take out more loans. However, according to the Basic Law, this is subject to strict requirements and requires a natural disaster or exceptional emergency situation that is beyond the control of the state and would significantly affect the financial situation.
“The situation in Ukraine has been known for several years now”says lawyer Hanno Kube from the University of Heidelberg. A financing volume of three billion euros is also not large enough to justify an emergency resolution. “An emergency in this sense requires a significant impact on the state budget”says the professor of public law star. Above all, however, the Scholz government lacked the necessary majority in parliament for such a decision to exceed the limit.
The Greens, FDP and Union favor another option: one “unscheduled” or “over-scheduled” Output.
In the provisional budget management, which is currently being practiced due to the lack of a budget for 2025, it would then be determined that previous expenditure for Ukraine was not sufficient. This route would avoid new debts for the time being. However, the money would then have to be found in the 2025 budget, which still has to be officially approved by the next federal government. Either through new debt or savings elsewhere.
Could the Union, the Greens and the FDP form a majority past Scholz and his SPD, in an unholy alliance, so to speak, a quasi-Jamaica coalition?
“From a purely legal perspective, the three billion euros could not be decided by a hypothetical Jamaica majority with the Union and FDP”says Sven-Christian Kindler, budget spokesman for the Greens in the Bundestag, to the star. The reason for this is of a technical legal nature: Excess expenditure must always first be forwarded by the Ministry of Finance to the Budget Committee. Without this supply, there can legally be no release of the funds, explains Kindler. “This means that the Chancellor must have the will to allow the Finance Minister to forward the bill to the committee.”
And Jörg Kukies, the SPD finance minister, has already driven in a stake in this regard. “Anyone who now says that we are spending more than planned has a duty to say how this should be covered”said Kukies in the . “Where do we cut? Or where do we get more?” In other words: This is not an option, at least not from the SPD’s point of view.
Ukraine aid “not a controversial topic for the election campaign”
Green Party chief budget officer Kindler even believes that the emergency debt brake rule is justified given the situation in Ukraine, although he raises concerns that there is currently no parliamentary majority for it. However, he believes that the three billion euros (from a budget of almost 480 billion euros) are manageable. With a provisional budget, fewer funds would flow out than with a regular budget, says Kindler. “That’s why it’s possible to finance the three billion – if you want to.”
The Union parliamentary group’s long-time financial policy spokeswoman Antje Tillmann also says: “Of course the money is there if the political will exists”. The budget for 2025 will amount to three billion euros “definitely not fail”she tells him star. From Tillmann’s point of view, Chancellor Scholz is not concerned with serious financing. “The reason that Scholz claims otherwise and brazenly accuses others of lying is solely the election campaign”she said. Green party housekeeper Kindler also rumbles: “I perceive Olaf Scholz’s question primarily in election campaign mode, but with little reference to what the dangerous situation in Ukraine now requires.”
Some say this, others say that – the fronts have hardened in political Berlin. While Ukraine is hoping for billions more in support. This also causes dissatisfaction among some social democrats. SPD foreign politician Michael Roth said that in the “nothing forward in the heated atmosphere in the election campaign” go. The chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the Bundestag demands that everyone responsible should now find a pragmatic solution. “This is not a contentious issue for the election campaign – this is an emergency situation.”
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.
