Greens reject financial package of the future federal government

The Greens do not want to agree to the billion-dollar defense and infrastructure package from CDU/CSU and SPD. The chairwoman of the Greens parliamentary group, Katharina Dröge, said in Berlin, she and co-chair Britta Haßelmann had recommended that the parliamentary group not to do this.

Party leader Franziska Brantner said that the Greens were not available to finance election gifts from the Union and SPD. It is about a sustainable reform of the debt brake.

Without the planned financial package, the Union and the SPD would lack the financial basis of their exploratory result and thus for the coalition negotiations targeted on Thursday. In their explorations for a coalition, the CDU, CSU and SPD had agreed to loosen the debt brake for higher defense spending and to create a special fund of 500 billion euros for the infrastructure.

The constitutional changes should actually be brought into the plenum on Thursday and decided by the old Bundestag on March 18.

However, the Greens did not hit all doors. Dröge said it was right to convene the new Bundestag. If that doesn’t happen, the Greens are also ready for faster decisions. But she made it clear that the Greens wanted a general reform of the debt brake. The left would also have signaled their consent. This procedure should begin now.

Haßelmann said Union Chancellor candidate Friedrich Merz announced that the package would be brought into the Bundestag unchanged. “What he has overlooked is that you need two-thirds of them for such an operation.” It is not enough to only appeal to the responsibility of the Greens. The Greens do not need any instruction.

Green Co-boss Felix Banaszak said with a view to the Union and SPD: “We are not available for a political style that repeatedly relies on setting something together, afterwards to present it to those you need to implement it and then say that the Greens have to agree anyway.”

Dröge said that Union and the SPD wanted to create a treasure chest with play money to put it in tax relief, a reform of the agricultural diesel and an increase in the commuter flat rate. She criticized that climate protection does not play a role.

After the Greens’ cancellation, the CDU announced talks with the party for Monday. He assumes that the talks will be done in a “constructive climate”, said CDU general secretary Carsten Linnemann on Monday in Berlin. He finds it “completely legitimate that the Greens say, we also have our ideas”.

Linnemann spoke of “constructive suggestions” with regard to the concerns of the Greens and was confident that he could “come together” in the conversations. “The conversations with the Greens are recorded, also with the FDP, and then you will see,” he continued.

Despite the rejection of the Greens, the SPD also continues to rely on an agreement on the planned debt admission for defense and infrastructure. “I do not give up the confidence that this can succeed,” said SPD party and parliamentary group leader Lars Klingbeil in Berlin. In the evening he would seek talking to the Greens Group’s tip together with CDU boss Friedrich Merz.

He took the concerns of the Greens very seriously, emphasized Klingbeil. It also does not surprise him that the content is not yet together. Now there must be confidential discussions about the content of the Greens. The goal must be to “get something behind which the democratic center can gather”.

The Greens had initially left their consent open. The procedure of Union faction leader Friedrich Merz (CDU) caused resentment in the parliamentary group, who had given a cancellation of discussions about similar projects before the election. In addition, there were failures from CSU boss against the Greens at the political Ash Wednesday.

In terms of content, the Greens had requested detailed suggestions and money also for climate protection. During the defense, the parliamentary group had also insisted on taking into account the intelligence services more.

The constitutional changes should be brought into the plenum on March 13 and decided on March 18 by the old Bundestag.

Note: This text has been updated several times.