Bundestag housekeepers take a break after 15 hours
On Wednesday, the Federal Constitutional Court declares a special fund of the federal government worth 60 billion euros to be unconstitutional. As a result, many questions remain unanswered during the final deliberations on the new budget in a long session. The CDU accuses the traffic light government of simply ignoring the ruling.
The Bundestag Budget Committee interrupted its final deliberations on the draft budget for 2024 early this morning. The deliberations on the ministries' budgets have been completed in terms of content, the chief budget officers of the coalition with the traffic light coalition - Dennis Rohde, Sven-Christian Kindler and Otto Fricke - announced after a good 15 hours. The consultations are to be concluded next Thursday in a special session. Prior to this, a digital expert hearing is planned for Tuesday, at which the consequences of the recent Constitutional Court ruling for the budget will be explained.
The Federal Constitutional Court had ordered the government to cancel 60 billion euros in unconstitutionally transferred loans. As the implications for the 2024 budget are unclear, the CDU/CSU wanted to postpone the final deliberations. The individual plans, 32 for interest and 60 for general financial administration, will be discussed in the special session on Thursday, according to the coalition budgeters. Only then will the key figures for the budget and the new debt be known.
The debt brake is to be complied with mathematically for the second year in a row. Finance Minister Christian Lindner had assumed new debt of 16.6 billion euros in his draft. According to Lindner, the scope for debt has now increased by a further 5.5 billion euros due to the worsening economic outlook.
No decision on Ukraine aid
Section 60 on general financial administration contains important projects that have not yet been decided. These include the doubling of military aid for Ukraine to eight billion euros in the coming year. The Ampel politicians claimed that the later decision would take account of the Karlsruhe ruling. "We are thus taking time to examine the ruling from Karlsruhe," explained the Ampel politicians. They accused the opposition CDU/CSU of refusing to cooperate. "First it tried to cancel the meeting and then it did not submit a single amendment to the federal budget."
The coalition budgeters want to explain the decisions on the individual ministries to the press this morning. The CDU/CSU, meanwhile, had accused the coalition of sticking to the budget resolution without a concrete assessment of the effects of the Karlsruhe ruling. "The coalition is discussing this budget as if yesterday's ruling had never happened," said CDU leader Friedrich Merz on ZDF television in the evening. "And we will certainly not be involved in that." He added: "I predict that this is heading back in the direction of an unconstitutional federal budget."
Merz: Basic child protection is dispensable
Merz called on the coalition to set priorities in the budget. According to him, the basic child protection planned from 2025, for example, could be dispensed with. "The basic child insurance does not bring improvements for any family or child, but spends 500 million euros on new bureaucracy and creates 3,000 new jobs in the public sector," said Merz. "That would be a clear signal from the coalition that it really wants to change something now. But it is not doing so."
Following the successful lawsuit against the German government's climate fund, the CDU/CSU is also considering a lawsuit against the 200 billion euro defense shield to curb energy prices. Merz expects the first results of a legal opinion on the matter by the beginning of the week after next at the latest. "On this basis, I will then decide whether we will also go to Karlsruhe against the WSF," Merz announced.
The German government is also examining the consequences of the Karlsruhe ruling for the Economic Stabilization Fund (WSF), which Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz described as a "double whammy" against the rise in energy prices as a result of the war in Ukraine. The WSF was endowed with 200 billion euros in loans in 2022 under suspension of the debt brake. The government thus created a debt framework in advance. This will be used to finance the gas and electricity price brakes, among other things. The majority of the expenditure will be incurred this year. It will also be used to finance the extension of the price brakes until the end of March 2024.
The traffic light coalition faces criticism from the CDU for not adequately addressing the Federal Constitutional Court's ruling on the unconstitutionality of a 60 billion euro fund, with Friedrich Merz questioning the coalition's budget policy and suggesting potential cuts in areas like basic child protection.
During the Budget Committee's proceedings to finalize the budget for 2024, the coalition budgeters plan to discuss the implications of the Constitutional Court ruling on the ministries' budgets, particularly Section 60, which includes crucial projects such as Ukraine aid.
Source: www.ntv.de
