2024 budget likely to be finalized before Christmas

Household - 2024 budget likely to be finalized before Christmas

In the budget crisis, SPD leader Saskia Esken expects the federal budget for 2024 to be finalized this year. At the same time, she spoke out against cuts to social benefits and climate protection.

Esken told the Düsseldorfer "Rheinische Post" newspaper: "We are determined and also confident that we will complete the budget for 2024 in the old year. The people in Germany, on whose shoulders the crises are piling up, have earned their Christmas rest and need clarity on how to proceed." However, Esken warned that this will only succeed if all coalition partners recognize the reality and come together now.

"We will find potential savings, but we should focus on the strong shoulders and not pensioners, children or the unemployed," said the SPD leader. At the same time, she indicated that she would not accept any cuts to the plans for the climate-friendly transformation of the economy. "We will continue on our path to climate neutrality and will not leave people and the economy to fend for themselves."

FDP rejects tax increases

The FDP also wants cuts in social spending. However, it rejects tax increases in the budget crisis. Johannes Vogel, deputy chairman of the FDP, told the German Press Agency: "Tax increases are not only rightly ruled out in the coalition agreement, they would also be exactly wrong for our competitiveness - because Germany is already a high-tax country. Instead, we must provide even greater relief for the middle class and companies, as agreed."

Following the Karlsruhe budget ruling, SPD leader Lars Klingbeil has questioned agreements made in the coalition agreement. The decision by the SPD, Greens and FDP not to increase taxes is under scrutiny, Klingbeil said.

The traffic light coalition is struggling to decide how much money the federal government can spend in the coming year. This is because the Karlsruhe ruling has torn gaps worth billions in the budget for 2024 as well as in a fund for modernizing the economy and for climate protection.

Topic of the debt brake

Vogel, First Parliamentary Secretary of the FDP parliamentary group, also spoke out against suspending the debt brake again next year due to an emergency - as many in the SPD are demanding. Vogel said that this does not seem legally possible, at the latest after the statements of the Federal Constitutional Court.

"But it would also be politically wrong - just like a fundamental weakening of the debt brake, as the majority of the Union Minister Presidents want. The debt brake has just been strengthened by the ruling from Karlsruhe." Weakening the debt brake in response to the ruling or increasing taxes is out of the question for the Free Democrats.

Vogel emphasized: "The state does not have a revenue problem, but it must now prioritize more clearly, realize the need for reform and use the resources at its disposal accurately. We must and can make savings and pursue more effective policies with less money."

Schulze disagrees with Lindner - development aid is good

Federal Development Minister Svenja Schulze, meanwhile, warned Finance Minister Christian Linder (FDP) against making cuts to development aid. "An economy that relies on international value chains and global solutions to problems cannot afford a snail-shell mentality," the SPD politician told the Funke Mediengruppe newspapers.

"Development cooperation is not a nice-to-have, but in our German interest," she emphasized. Withdrawal would clearly be the wrong path for a strong industrialized country like Germany. "The problems would still come to us because they can only be solved globally," Schulze warned.

In an interview with Funke, Lindner had previously mentioned social issues such as the citizen's income, international financial aid and unspecified funding programs as areas where savings could be made in order to close gaps in the budget for 2024. The FDP leader argued that Germany is ahead in terms of development cooperation and international climate protection funding.

Calls to stop the citizens' income plus

With regard to the citizen's income, the FDP leader pointed out in the Funke media group newspapers that the inflation rate is developing much better than forecast when the standard rate was set for 2024.

However, the sharp increase in the Citizen's Income at the start of 2024 is also causing disagreement within the CDU/CSU. The social wing is resisting calls from the party leaders to stop the increase. CSU leader Markus Söder and leading FDP politicians, on the other hand, are calling for the twelve percent increase to be reversed.

On January 1, 2024, the more than five million citizens' income recipients are to receive an average of around 12 percent more money - single people will then receive 563 euros. In contrast to previous adjustments, inflation, which had risen sharply for months, was taken more into account in the calculation for 2024 due to a change in the rules.