CSU calls on Scholz to cancel his vacation immediately
A review concludes that there are constitutional concerns regarding the 2025 federal budget. The traffic light coalition must therefore renegotiate - but instead argues again. This alarms the Union. The CSU demands that Chancellor Scholz must return from his vacation.
Due to the latest dispute within the traffic light coalition over the federal budget, Chancellor Olaf Scholz should immediately cut short his vacation and intervene, according to the CSU. "Where is Scholz? The traffic light coalition is falling apart in public again because it is failing with the budget - and the Chancellor is on vacation," said CSU General Secretary Martin Huber. This is intolerable and disrespectful towards citizens. "Therefore, it is clear: Scholz must cut short his vacation."
Moreover, the Union considers the calculations of Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner for the 2025 budget unrealistic. The financing gap is "greater than the five billion euros claimed by Christian Lindner," said Deputy Parliamentary Group Leader Mathias Middelberg. "In fact, after deducting a capital increase for the railway of up to 3.6 billion euros, 13.4 billion euros still need to be financed from the open 17 billion euros," he calculated. Lindner's expectation that eight to nine billion euros would not be spent is unrealistic. Given the current shrinking economic development, increased spending, especially in the social sector, can be expected. This is already evident in the draft for the supplementary budget 2024, where 3.7 billion euros are provided for "massively increasing expenses in citizen's money," said Middelberg.
Redirection of KfW funding risky
Despite the renewed dispute over the 2025 federal budget, the federal government expressed confidence that an agreement can be reached. "At least, everyone is willing and optimistic that everything can be resolved well in the end," said Vice-Government Spokesman Wolfgang Büchner in Berlin. In the budget agreement in early July, it was agreed to have three financing options for closing remaining budget gaps legally and economically reviewed. The results of these reviews and the corresponding reports are now available, said Büchner. They will now be carefully evaluated within the federal government.
Both Scholz and, "as far as I can see," Lindner agree that two of the three options are legally possible, while one is constitutionally not feasible, said the Vice-Government Spokesman. Therefore, it remains to be seen how to deal with the results.
Lindner had publicly announced on Sunday that reports indicate constitutional risks in some of the federal government's plans, such as the idea of using the remaining 4.9 billion euros of the KfW promotional bank for gas price brakes elsewhere in the budget. Therefore, negotiations on the budget must be reopened.
Bavaria's Finance Minister Albert Füracker also criticized the traffic light coalition harshly: "First, the traffic light took forever to achieve a seemingly agreed budget, and now the grandly and publicly presented compromise is obviously falling apart after just a few weeks. No sign of government capability - a complete fiasco," he said to the newspapers of the Mediengruppe Bayern. The federal government must prioritize its spending in favor of future investments. It will not be possible to generate an economic upswing with only consumer spending.
Esken attacks Lindner
Saskia Esken, the SPD leader, was among those who sharply criticized Lindner. In the morning show of ARD and ZDF, she accused the FDP chairman of publicly revealing the results of the studies on the 2025 budget in a ZDF summer interview first. "He talks about transparency, but he didn't create transparency within the government, but with the public. That's inappropriate, and it serves his own profiling," Esken said. She believes Lindner is damaging the government again in this way.
Similarly, SPD General Secretary Kevin Kühnert had previously expressed himself; he accused the finance minister of "self-promotion" because he published the results while Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz is on vacation. According to Esken, Scholz, Lindner, and Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck want to discuss the budget issue, clarify it by August 14, and then submit the draft budget to parliament. Deputy government spokesman Büchner did not want to comment on planned talks between Scholz, Habeck, and Lindner. "The Federal Chancellor and his ministers are always able and willing to speak to each other and coordinate," he emphasized.
In light of Lindner's revelation of constitutional concerns regarding the budget plans, such as the use of KfW funding for gas price brakes, negotiations on the federal budget must be reopened. I'm not going to lie, the recent developments in the budget discussions have been alarming and raise questions about the coalition's ability to effectively manage financial matters.
