Sustainable solutions required
Unions: Budget crisis costs thousands of jobs
December 10, 2023, 12:28 p.m
Listen to article
This audio version was artificially generated. More info | Send feedback
Negotiations on the 2024 budget are continuing, and there are hopes for a quick agreement, especially in the economy. Trade union representatives are already showing what will happen if “the brake on Germany’s renewal” is not finally released.
In view of the still unresolved budget crisis, the trade union camp is sounding the alarm. DGB, IG Metall and IGBCE warned of the exodus of industry and the loss of thousands of jobs. In a joint appeal, they are calling on politicians to quickly develop viable solutions to the challenges posed by the Federal Constitutional Court’s ruling. In the short term, it must be ensured that the essential public investments and the funding instruments for private investments in green transformation and other future technologies will also be available in 2024.
“A quick and constitutionally compliant solution to ensure the tasks of the century is to create a special fund in the Basic Law in order to finally release the brake on the renewal of our country,” explained DGB boss Yasmin Fahimi. To achieve this, all responsible democrats must now come together.
In addition, the unions are calling for competitive electricity prices for energy-intensive sectors as well as a multi-year plan for ramping up investment activity by the public sector and its rapid implementation. The current uncertainty in the economy is dangerous: long-term, risky investments that companies have to make now cannot be reconciled with constant rule changes due to new political requirements.
Scholz, Habeck and Lindner come together
According to the head of the Mining, Chemical and Energy Industrial Union (IGBCE), Michael Vassiliadis, the need of the hour is to combine public funds with private investments: “If we don’t invest boldly in modernization now, we will be a disadvantage for the following generations leaving run-down land behind.”
Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Finance Minister Christian Lindner and Economics Minister Robert Habeck want to continue negotiations on Sunday afternoon about the 2024 budget, which must be changed following the ruling of the Federal Constitutional Court.
In mid-November, the Federal Constitutional Court declared it inadmissible to reallocate loans planned for the consequences of Corona into the Climate and Transformation Fund (KTF). This created a financial gap of 60 billion euros. The federal budget for 2024 is about 17 billion euros.