Household - Brandenburg's cabinet approves supplementary budget for aid package
The Brandenburgan executive government has set the switches for a new financing of the aid package to alleviate the energy crisis following the Constitutional Court's ruling. The cabinet decided on a second supplementary budget for this year to prevent already approved aid measures worth nearly 850 million Euro from being paid through credits, but instead from the budget. The money is planned to be taken from the state's reserve. The Landtag still needs to make the final decision on the supplementary budget. It had already majority-approved the plans. With the aid measures, families, hospitals, businesses, and municipalities are to be relieved.
Therefore, the red-black-green government of Minister President Dietmar Woidke (SPD) is taking action following the decision of the highest constitutional court, which declared the regulations of the aid package from 2022 invalid and demanded a better explanation for the connection between the aid and the declared state of emergency. With this, the AfD faction in the Landtag achieved success in this regard. The court did not refer to the supplementary budget 2024 in this context. The coalition of SPD, CDU, and Greens declared a state of emergency again for this year due to security reasons following the ruling of the Federal Constitutional Court and also passed a supplementary budget. The Germany-Ticket was no longer financed from the aid package.
Finance Minister Lange will avoid new declarations of emergency and a better description of the connection between aid measures and the state of emergency with the new supplementary budget, as required by the Constitutional Court. For the supplementary budget, further sessions of parliament are still necessary. The first reading is reportedly scheduled in July in the Landtag, according to government spokesman Florian Engels. The budget volume in this year is therefore expected to decrease compared to the first supplementary budget by 212 million Euro to a total of 16.7 billion Euro.
Left wants examination of further credit take-up
Fraktion leader Sebastian Walter warns against a complete financing from the reserve. "The effect would first be that the next state government would hardly be able to act", he said. And: "We will need further investments." Walter referred to schools and kindergartens as well as social political measures. It must be precisely examined whether credits cannot be taken out instead. "The state of emergency is still in our view present", he said.
- The Constitutional Court's ruling on the aid package from 2022 prompted the red-black-green government in Brandenburg, led by Minister President Dietmar Woidke, to act.
- The Constitutional Court declared the regulations of the aid package invalid and demanded a better explanation for the connection between the aid and the declared state of emergency, which the AfD faction in the Landtag achieved.
- Finance Minister Katrin Lange introduced a second supplementary budget to prevent aid measures worth nearly 850 million Euro from being funded through credits, instead taking the money from the state's reserve.
- The SPD, CDU, and Greens once again declared a state of emergency this year following the Federal Constitutional Court's ruling, which also led to the passing of a supplementary budget.
- The brand-new supplementary budget, as proposed by Finance Minister Lange, aims to avoid any new declarations of emergency and to provide a better description of the connection between aid measures and the state of emergency, as required by the Constitutional Court.
- The Dietmar Woidke-led state government in Brandenburg is working on implementing the supplementary budget, with further sessions in the Landtag and a first reading scheduled in July, according to government spokesman Florian Engels.
