Struggle for the 2025 budget
Lindner’s plans are already being criticized
May 2, 2024, 10:25 a.m
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2025 is still a long way off, but Finance Minister Lindner is already having to listen to criticism from all sides because of the budget: The Union sees a “serious strategic mistake” due to the lack of key budget figures. The SPD and the Greens complain about a different point.
The Union has sharply criticized the procedure used by Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner from the FDP to prepare the 2025 federal budget. “Abandoning the benchmark procedure turns out to be a strategically serious mistake,” said the Union parliamentary group’s chief budget officer, Christian Haase, to the “Rheinische Post”.
“It was foreseeable that this approach would not solve any of the known and foreseeable problems,” said Haase. “In view of the financial policy dimension and complex problems within the coalition, Lindner should not have played for time and given priority to the principle of ‘hope’. This naivety leaves you speechless,” he said. In March, Lindner refrained from presenting the usual budget benchmarks. Instead, the individual ministries should register their spending plans for 2025 with Lindner by this Thursday. There is a financing gap in the double-digit billion range.
The SPD parliamentary group is again pushing for the debt brake to be suspended in the negotiations on the 2025 budget. “For the SPD, the focus is on internal, external and social security. These expenditures must not be played off against each other,” said SPD parliamentary group deputy Achim Post to the “Rheinische Post”. “Suspension of the debt brake would therefore be an option that needs to be examined for the 2025 budget,” said Post.
Greens: “These are not normal times”
The Greens’ parliamentary group also warns Lindner of tough austerity measures in the 2025 budget. “There is war in Europe, the economy is stagnating, the climate crisis is worsening, and the social mood is polarized. These are not normal times,” said the Greens’ chief budget officer Sven-Christian Kindler of the newspaper. “A tough austerity course would worsen the economic situation and endanger social peace and democratic stability. You don’t save into the crisis,” warned Kindler. “In these times, we must invest in our future, guarantee social security and protect our democracy. An economically wise and socially just financial policy is now required,” said the Green politician.
FDP chief budget officer Otto Fricke counters the criticism and calls on the SPD and the Greens to be more realistic in the discussion about easing the debt brake. “In all the discussion about the 2025 budget, it should not be forgotten that there are no majorities to weaken the debt brake with the necessary majority to change the constitution,” said Fricke to the “Rheinische Post”. “Any discussion of this distracts from the real task of budget policy,” he said.