- 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. 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, the federal government is heading towards the next constitutional breach, as was the case with the previous federal budget and the recently overturned Bundestag election law 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 demanded a strong stance from Scholz in the dispute with Lindner.
Scholz: Federal government to discuss next steps confidentially
Previously, Scholz had intervened in the new dispute over the federal budget 2025 from his vacation and drawn completely different conclusions from two expert opinions on the budget plan than Lindner. "It was sensible to have the options for action of the federal government reviewed by experts on how Deutsche Bahn and the highways can be financially supported in the budget. Clear result of the legal opinion: That's possible," said Scholz to "Zeit Online". The federal government will discuss next steps confidentially.
The background of the dispute are 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.
Scholz's intervention in the budget dispute led the Federal government to discuss potential solutions privately, despite Lindner's concerns about the legal and economic viability of the proposed measures. The CSU continued to criticize Scholz, stating that his decision to reprimand Lindner and claim the budget was already suitable, despite the chaos within the Federal government, was acting irresponsibly and showed a "complete loss of reality."
