Traffic light leaders reach agreement in dispute over 2024 federal budget
Details of the agreement between Scholz, Lindner and Habeck were not initially disclosed. As a result of the Federal Constitutional Court's budget ruling, a double-digit billion euro gap had to be closed in the 2024 budget. Finance Minister Lindner put this at 17 billion euros.
Chancellor Scholz had been negotiating a solution with Linder and Habeck for days. The SPD demanded until the end that the debt brake be suspended in the coming year and wanted to justify this with the consequences of the war in Ukraine. However, the Liberals strictly rejected this. They demanded savings and did not rule out cuts in the social sector.
In mid-November, the Federal Constitutional Court ruled that 60 billion euros in unused loans for the fight against the coronavirus pandemic could not be shifted to the Climate and Transformation Fund (KTF). This meant that the coalition government lacked billions for the coming years to finance key energy transition projects.
Similar special funds such as the Economic Stabilization Fund WSF are also affected by the Karlsruhe decision. The traffic light government has therefore already had to decide on a supplementary budget for the current year and the renewed suspension of the debt brake in order to put the payments for the electricity and gas price brakes in particular on a legally secure footing.
However, the WSF will now be wound up at the end of the year. At the end of November, Scholz announced that the energy price brakes, which were originally planned to expire at the end of March, would then also expire.
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- The dispute over the 2024 federal budget led to a significant agreement between Olaf Scholz, Christian Lindner, and Robert Habeck.
- Although the details of the agreement were not immediately released, it became clear that they needed to close a double-digit billion euro gap due to the Federal Constitutional Court's budget ruling.
- After days of negotiation, Chancellor Scholz reached a compromise with Finance Minister Lindner and SPD co-chair Habeck, despite their differing views on suspending the debt brake and making cuts in the social sector.
- The Federal Constitutional Court had previously ruled that 60 billion euros in unused loans could not be shifted to the Climate and Transformation Fund, further exacerbating the budget issues.
- With the closing of the gap in mind, some analysts began discussing potential tips for the traffic light coalition, including views from the SPD and the FDP.
- As a result of the agreement, Olaf Scholz, Christian Lindner, and Robert Habeck will need to present their 2024 federal budget to the Federal Constitutional Court for approval, potentially facing further challenges and disputes.
- The Federal Chancellery will now have to work closely with all parties involved to create a budget that can pass through the Federal Constitutional Court and maintain the coalition's stability.
Source: www.stern.de
