- CSU: Scholz suffers from a loss of reality in the budget dispute
After Chancellor Olaf Scholz's intervention in the budget dispute, the CSU accuses him of having "a complete loss of reality." "Olaf Scholz emerges from vacation only to reprimand his finance minister (Christian Lindner, FDP) and claim that the draft budget is already suitable. Anyone who comes to this conclusion given the total chaos in the federal government is acting absolutely irresponsibly," said CSU General Secretary Martin Huber to the German Press Agency in Munich.
Scholz is governing according to the motto "keep your eyes shut and push through," Huber emphasized. With this approach, the federal government is heading towards another constitutional breach, as seen in the previous federal budget and the recent Bundestag election law struck down by the Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe. "Apparently, the Chancellor's vacation is more important to him than a constitutional budget." The CSU itself had called on Scholz to intervene in the dispute with Lindner.
Scholz: Federal Government to discuss next steps confidentially
Previously, Scholz had intervened in the new dispute over the 2025 federal budget from his vacation and drawn completely different conclusions from two expert opinions on the budget plan than Lindner. "It was useful to have the options for action of the federal government reviewed by experts regarding how Deutsche Bahn and the highways can be financially supported in the budget. The clear result of the legal opinion: That's possible," said Scholz to "Zeit Online." The federal government will discuss next steps confidentially.
The dispute is about three measures that were supposed to reduce the financing gap in the budget for the coming year by a total of eight billion euros. Lindner had raised legal and economic concerns about the ideas, which he said originated from the SPD-led Chancellery. Therefore, he had commissioned two expert opinions to evaluate the plans.
Despite the CSU's criticism of Chancellor Scholz's handling of the budget dispute, he remains firm in his approach, stating that the federal government will discuss the next steps on the matter confidentially. The Federal government's decision to intervene in the dispute, with Scholz drawing different conclusions from expert opinions compared to Finance Minister Lindner, has further escalated tensions within the coalition government.
