"Pack the heating law, then you'll have enough money"

"Pack the heating law, then you'll have enough money"

The supplementary budget of the coalition government has reached the Bundestag. Finance Minister Lindner wants to use it to "cure" the breach of the constitution, as the housekeepers say. MPs are already one step further in the debate.

A good two weeks after the Constitutional Court almost deprived the coalition of breathing space, the rescue of the budget is taking shape. This morning, the coalition introduced its supplementary budget to the Bundestag, where it was debated at first reading, with Finance Minister Christian Lindner emphasizing that no new debt would be incurred. Rather: "We are now creating legal certainty." He again put the financing gap for the coming year at 17 billion euros.

The supplementary budget, on the other hand, is intended to iron out the mistakes of the current year. Debts already incurred will now have a new home. So far, they have come in the form of electricity and gas price brakes and aid for the flood victims in the Ahr valley from the economic stabilization fund. As it is generally accepted that the Constitutional Court ruling also affects this fund, it had to be blocked and closed at the end of the year. The money spent will now be booked in the supplementary budget. This means that this expenditure will once again have a valid legal basis. To do this, the government wants and needs to suspend the debt brake once again.

The meeting was the meagre remainder of what was supposed to be the budget week. The MPs wanted to debate the expenditure for the coming year. The budget should actually have been finalized two weeks ago in the adjustment session, also known as the "night of the long knives". But nothing came of it. Because the Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe declared the traffic light system's accounting tricks null and void, the budget for the current year first had to be "cured", as the budget politicians like to say.

Already one step further in thought

Apart from Lindner, no minister was present in the Bundestag on this important date. So the experts from the parties threw arguments at each other. CDU/CSU budget minister Mathias Middelberg once again listed the misdemeanors of the traffic light system and earned derisive laughter when he said that confidence must now be spread. Many in the government factions believe that the CDU/CSU is painting a much darker picture of the situation than it actually is. SPD MP Wiebke Esdar even called it "subversive of the state".

However, Middelberg and the following speakers were already one step ahead. Because this supplementary budget will go through. Although the CDU/CSU does not have to agree to it, it could again take legal action against it in Karlsruhe. But it will not do so, as Merz has already said. Union experts also consider this supplementary budget to be constitutional. Even if the justification is perplexing: throughout the year, Lindner declared that the emergency was over and spoke of a return to normality. And now, just before Christmas, he has once again declared an emergency.

The traffic light government was only able to adhere to the debt brake because it had created secondary budgets with the Economic Stabilization Fund and the Climate and Transformation Fund (KTF). This meant that the federal budget remained within the debt brake, while the billions from the WSF simply gushed out - 43.2 billion euros for electricity and gas price brakes alone. It was again a Green politician who found the clearest words of regret about this obviously incorrect practice today: "It didn't work like that, it was a mistake, there's nothing to gloss over," said Sven Kindler. While Chancellor Olaf Scholz failed to make any statement in the direction of an apology during the government statement on Tuesday, Green Party parliamentary group leader Katharina Dröge also expressed her regret.

It's down to the nitty-gritty of next year's budget. Internally, the coalition parties have long been negotiating whether the budget emergency should also be declared next year, i.e. whether the debt brake should be suspended. The Greens and SPD are largely in favor, the FDP against, as is the CDU/CSU. They point to high tax revenues. "You don't have the confidence to raise 17 billion?", said CDU budget minister Christian Haase. "Pack up the heating law again, then you'll have enough money," he advised.

Union: "Ready to help you with any solution"

Middelberg also called on the traffic lights to find the necessary money in the budget: "We are prepared to help you with any solution you might need us for," he said. "That presupposes that you really approach your budget now, that you really reallocate, that you really make serious savings," he continued. This can be understood in two ways: Firstly, that the CDU/CSU might not appeal against a renewed declaration of the debt brake if the traffic light government makes serious savings on its own projects beforehand.

Secondly, he could have been alluding to a new special fund, along the lines of the Bundeswehr. This could be used to finance projects from the climate and transformation fund. However, the CDU/CSU would have to agree to this. Although it is very reluctant rhetorically on this issue, it has not ruled it out. Either way, this could also be a "solution" that Middelberg might have had in mind.

Meanwhile, coalition politicians such as Kindler and Dennis Rohde from the SPD attempted to divide the CDU/CSU. There is a difference between the opposition in the Bundestag and in the federal states, said Rohde. He was not alone in referring to Schleswig-Holstein, where CDU Minister President Daniel Günther has already declared a budget emergency. However, this has a lot to do with an actual, typical cause: a natural disaster. This refers to the Baltic Sea storm surge that caused extensive damage in October.

Saxony-Anhalt's Minister President Reiner Haseloff is worried about subsidies for the large Intel chip factory planned in Magdeburg and is also open to a renewed suspension of the debt brake at federal level. And then there is Berlin's Governing Mayor Kai Wegner, who has even spoken out in favor of a reform of the debt brake in "Stern" - which Merz rules out. All speakers are likely to agree on at least one point: Time is of the essence. A new budget should be in place by the new year.

1. Despite the Constitutional Court's ruling, Finance Minister Christian Lindner from the Traffic light coalition and the Union parliamentary group's Mathias Middelberg both believe that the supplementary budget will be approved in the German Bundestag.
2. Friedrich Merz, a prominent CDU member, has stated that the Union will not take legal action against the supplementary budget, even though some CDU/CSU experts consider it to have a questionable justification.
3. Christian Haase, another CDU member and budget minister, suggested that the coalition could meet the 17 billion euro funding gap by revisiting the 'heating law' and increasing revenue.
4. Meanwhile, CDU Minister President Daniel Günther in Schleswig-Holstein has declared a budget emergency due to natural disasters, indicating that not all CDU members are united in their opposition to suspending the debt brake.

Source: www.ntv.de