- Ampel seeks solution to funding gap
Until the next cabinet meeting on August 14, the federal government will have an amended plan for the 2025 budget - but discussions about it in the coming days could be challenging. Deputy government spokesman Wolfgang Büchner said in Berlin that he had nothing to report about a concrete planned personal meeting between Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD), Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP), and Vice-Chancellor Robert Habeck (Greens). However, the Chancellor and his cabinet colleagues are always able to coordinate, even by phone. "At any rate, everyone is willing and optimistic that we can resolve everything in the end," he added.
Lindner had previously made public that experts see constitutional and economic risks in some of the federal government's plans, such as using leftover 4.9 billion euros from the promotional bank KfW for gas price brakes instead of elsewhere in the budget. The plan to lend instead of grant funds to the motorway company could also be problematic.
Therefore, negotiations on the budget will have to be reopened, said Lindner. Criticism subsequently came from the SPD, saying that the Federal Finance Minister should have sought internal discussion on this first.
At the sidelines of a citizens' dialogue in Potsdam, Lindner reaffirmed on Monday where the FDP's red lines lie. He said: "There is no option to increase taxes for the people's work and businesses, but rather to stick to the goals of broad relief." It is also not an option to make emergency decisions on the debt brake.
SPD leader Saskia Esken said in the morning magazine of ARD and ZDF: "He speaks of transparency, but he has not established transparency within the government, but with the public. That is inappropriate, and it serves his own profiling. Again, he is damaging the government. Scholz, Lindner, and Habeck will speak to each other until August 14 to find a solution and then submit the draft budget to parliament."
FDP parliamentary group leader Christian Dürr said in the Deutschlandfunk: "In principle, the budget is in place." The budget for the coming year is much larger than the five billion euro gap.
The Union assumes a significantly larger financing gap. The Federal Finance Minister had put the financing gap at around five billion euros on Sunday. Doubts were raised from the Union. The financing gap is "larger than the five billion euros claimed by Christian Lindner," said deputy parliamentary group leader Mathias Middelberg (CDU) to the German Press Agency. "In fact, after deducting a capital increase for the railway of up to 3.6 billion euros, there are still 13.4 billion euros to be financed from the remaining 17 billion euros," he calculated.
Lindner's expectation that eight to nine billion euros would not be spent is unrealistic. Given the currently shrinking economic development, increased spending, especially in the social sector, can be expected. This is already shown in the draft supplementary budget for 2024, where alone 3.7 billion euros are provided for "massively increasing expenditures in citizens' money," said Middelberg.
The deputy chairman of the Union faction accused the coalition parties of destroying the trust of consumers and private investors with the uncertainty they caused regarding the budget, as well as funding programs and public investments. He stated: "If the traffic light coalition doesn't quickly and credibly end their squabble, the decline of the German economy will only pick up speed."
It had been publicly stated during the presentation of the budget by Scholz, Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck (Greens), and Lindner a month ago that there were these review requests to the Ministry of Finance, said FDP faction leader Dürr, apparently trying to deflect criticism from Lindner.
Kühnert accuses Lindner of poor style
The results should have been discussed internally, said SPD general secretary Kevin Kühnert to the TV station Phoenix. "That's simply to describe as poor style." If a government jointly initiates a review, the results should first be discussed with the colleagues in the federal government. Lindner apparently wants to lead a "public interpretation contest" over the social state in Germany.
From the Federal Ministry of Finance, it was stated after an initial review of the studies last week that "measures to improve the accuracy of social benefits, over which no political agreement has been reached so far, could also reduce the need for action".
The Federal Parliament will need to review and potentially amend the federal government's 2025 budget plan due to concerns raised by Finance Minister Christian Lindner, as the experts see constitutional and economic risks in some of the proposed budget measures. The Chancellor and his cabinet colleagues, including Lindner, will continue their discussions to find a consensus before submitting the draft budget to the Federal Parliament by August 14.
