Budget dispute drags on into the night
For Thursday, Scholz hoped for an agreement on the budget for 2025. But in the evening, a gap of ten billion Euro still persisted, which Scholz, Finance Minister Lindner, and Economics Minister Habeck need to close. A restless night is forecasted.
The heads of the German government have continued their lengthy struggle over the new federal budget past midnight. Bundeskanzler Olaf Scholz from the SPD, Finance Minister Christian Lindner from the FDP, and Economics Minister Robert Habeck from the Greens came together at the Chancellery already in the afternoon around 3:00 PM. At first, no agreement on the already ongoing budget negotiations for the coming year was announced.
However, there is a tentative target: At 7:00 AM, the SPD and Greens factions will meet for special sessions to be informed about the status of the negotiations. Scholz and Habeck may also participate. For the FDP, there will be a digital briefing for the parliamentarians at the same time.
FDP resists pressure from the SPD
The SPD had announced its faction meeting in advance and had increased the pressure on the three negotiators and their teams. They want clarity before the parliamentary summer break on what they will have to deal with from September 10th. After all, it is not the federal government but the Bundestag that decides on the budget - usually in November or December.
The FDP has also made it clear that they do not want to be put under pressure in the negotiations. "We must be careful in our deliberations. It's about the stability of our state finances in an uncertain global situation," said FDP leader Lindner.
Union is skeptical
The dispute escalated because, due to the difficult economic situation, many billions of euros in tax revenues are missing to finance the budget requests of the ministries. The three-person round therefore met frequently. In the evening, the talk was of a gap of around 10 billion Euro that still needed to be closed.
Above all, the SPD is pushing for the debt brake to be suspended again to have more room for investments due to financial burdens from the Ukraine war. For Lindner's FDP, this is not an option. The SPD rejects the cuts in social security that Lindner favors - even though he does not speak of cuts but of a curb on further growth. Negotiations are also taking place about a package of measures to stimulate the weak economy.
The chairman of the CSU parliamentary group, Alexander Dobrindt, expressed skepticism. "I don't see any sign of an agreement in sight. And that's why it's rather to be expected that it will get worse, instead of it somehow improving," he told the television station Welt.
The Traffic light coalition, comprising the SPD, FDP, and Greens, is still wrestling with a budget gap of ten billion Euro for the 2025 budget, as stated by Finance Minister Scholz. The FDP, led by Lindner, is adamant about maintaining the budget policy's stability in uncertain global circumstances, opposing any pressure to suspend the debt brake again.
