“Need to talk about realities”
Lindner tilts traffic light meetings to the budget
03/09/2023, 10:11 p.m
In the dispute over the 2024 budget, the finance minister has ordered his cabinet colleagues to exercise strict cost discipline. Overall, the departments want to spend 70 billion more than the framework allows. Lindner has now canceled a meeting to present the budget.
Finance Minister Christian Lindner is postponing the submission of his key figures for the 2024 budget. The FDP politician originally wanted to present the budget plans to the cabinet next Wednesday. He had already informed Chancellor Olaf Scholz that this appointment could not be kept, dpa learned in the evening. “We will have to talk about financial realities together again in the cabinet,” said Lindner. He expressly does not name a new point in time.
His fellow ministers had announced additional requests of 70 billion euros, for which Lindner sees no leeway in the budget. According to the Ministry of Finance, the risks for the budget have recently increased further. In this context, he mentioned interest payments, ongoing collective bargaining and aid to Ukraine. “The high interest burden is a clear signal to curb government debt,” said Lindner. At the same time, the citizens were already paying high taxes. “So we have to learn to get by with the available financial framework.” Priorities must be set for this, because not everything can be financed at the same time.
“Postponement No Drama”
The “Spiegel” had previously reported that the date was shaky, although there had been weeks of preparatory consultations (“boss talks”) between Lindner and the traffic light ministers. In the Ministry of Finance it is said that a postponement of the benchmark decisions is “no drama,” wrote the magazine. The federal government has until the summer to submit a calculated budget draft.
The budget is clearly defined. The Ministry of Finance sets the tone from the start. In his “Letter of Statement” for the 2024 budget on January 3, Lindner laid down the line that “from 2024 the turning point in financial policy must be implemented consistently”. An end to the “expansive financial policy course” that had led to the suspension of the debt brake from 2020 to 2022 as a result of the corona pandemic and the Ukraine war in order to incur hundreds of billions of euros in new debt. In 2023 the brakes will come into play again. This should also apply in 2024. This is what the SPD, Greens and FDP agreed in the coalition agreement.