Parliament - Thuringia's 2024 budget just before Christmas?
The tug-of-war over Thuringia's 2024 state budget is entering the decisive phase. According to budget politicians, the outcome of the meeting between CDU parliamentary group leader Mario Voigt and Minister President Bodo Ramelow (Left Party) this Friday will determine whether there will be a compromise budget for the 2024 election year shortly before Christmas or whether the state parliament will face a risky procedure next week with a possibly unconstitutional budget. "Everything is currently up in the air," said Ronald Hande, budget politician for the Left Party, when asked on Thursday.
The background to this is that Ramelow's red-red-green governing coalition does not have its own majority in the state parliament and is reliant on compromises with the opposition - until now this has been the CDU. Theoretically, the CDU, AfD and FDP could also adopt a budget together. It would be a first for the opposition to adopt a budget in a federal state - with unpredictable consequences.
Hundreds of amendments to the government's budget
Hande said he hoped that following the government's compromise proposals this week, an agreement would be reached between Ramelow and Voigt on possible corrections to the budget. These could then be implemented in amendments to the draft budget at relatively short notice. The chairman of the budget committee, Volker Emde (CDU), said in response to an inquiry that the committee had already received a total of around 500 amendments from the Left, CDU, SPD, Greens, AfD and FDP. They are actually due to be voted on on Friday. Whether this happens also depends on the outcome of the meeting between Voigt and Ramelow, Emde also said.
Possible scenarios until the budget decision
According to budget politicians from various parliamentary groups, two paths are conceivable: if the opposition leader and the head of government reach an agreement, new amendments would be written and voted on in a later session of the budget finalization. If deadlines are met, a budget decision by the state parliament in the days before Christmas Eve would then be conceivable, it was said. So far, the budget has a record volume of 13.8 billion euros. All of the state's reserves would be used to finance it. The CDU parliamentary group is fighting against this. Among other things, it is calling for less spending and for the reserves to be conserved.
If no agreement is reached, there could be a "wild process", as Hande called it. Then the existing amendments, some of which contradict each other, would be voted on. This could result in the budget no longer being balanced and therefore not being constitutional. Adjustment meetings would be necessary or parliament would have to decide in its scheduled session from Wednesday to Friday next week how to deal with such a budget.
FDP speaks of horse-trading
While the leaders of the governing coalition and opposition leader Voigt made it clear that they are concerned that Thuringia should not go into the 2024 super election year without an agreed budget, criticism has come from other opposition parties. The spokesperson for the FDP group, Thomas Kemmerich, spoke of horse-trading between the red-red-green party and the CDU. The Federal Constitutional Court's ruling on the federal budget also gave Thuringia the opportunity to reorganize its state finances and put them on a legally secure footing. Among other things, Kemmerich criticized plans by the red-red-green coalition to extend the repayment of coronavirus loans from 8 to 15 years. The AfD also rejects the budget and the compromise proposals.
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Source: www.stern.de
