Budget dispute: Finance Minister Lindner sees funding gap of €5 billion
Finance Minister Christian Lindner sees a funding gap of around five billion euros in the 2025 federal budget, according to recent studies. However, there is still plenty of time to find a viable solution, emphasized the FDP chairman in a summer interview with the ZDF program "Berlin direkt". By mid-month, he will consult with Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) and Vice-Chancellor Robert Habeck (Greens), after which the draft budget will be submitted to the Bundestag, where it is scheduled to be passed by the end of November.
Initially, the three top figures of the traffic light coalition had announced at the beginning of July that they had found a compromise on the budget. The aim was to plug a gap of around 30 billion euros. However, Lindner had already expressed doubts about several projects at the time and had them reviewed legally and economically. The review revealed legal risks, particularly in the plan to use the remaining 4.9 billion euros of the promotional bank KfW for gas price brakes elsewhere in the budget. "I want a budget within the framework of the constitution," Lindner emphasized.
Lindner drew a red line for the upcoming negotiations on "tax increases for the working middle class". It's not about saving, but about shifting funds to the right purposes.
The Finance Minister, Lindner, emphasized the need for a solution to bridge the five billion euro funding gap in the 2025 federal budget. Despite legal and economic concerns raised about certain projects, Lindner remains committed to finding a budget within the constitutional framework.
