Traffic light talk at Lanz
“What’s smoking in the Chancellery?”
By Marko Schlichting
10.07.2024, 05:02 a.m.
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Last week, the federal government presented a draft for the new budget. And immediately there was a dispute. The guests on Markus Lanz’s ZDF show asked themselves whether there was too much complaining in Germany. The SPD politician Stegner also commented on possible new elections.
They were proud when they announced the agreement on a draft budget of the traffic light coalition: Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Economics Minister Robert Habeck and Finance Minister Christian Lindner. But not all of the traffic light politicians agree with this. Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, for example, would have liked to see significantly more for the Bundeswehr, which has been ruined by austerity measures.
Shortly after the agreement on the new draft budget on Friday, in which the debt brake is to be adhered to, there was also criticism from the SPD parliamentary group. Its chairman Rolf Mützenich told the press that the final word on the debt brake had not yet been spoken. In fact, the federal government’s draft budget will be discussed by parliament in the next few months. That is its job, explains Ralf Stegner. The SPD politician is one of the guests on the ZDF talk show “Markus Lanz”, which is about the situation in Germany and the federal government’s draft budget.
“Germany has luxury problems”
“People sometimes act as if our state no longer functions,” says Stegner about the current situation. Many people abroad would be happy if they had our problems. “This whining really gets on my nerves. Instead of saying now is the time to roll up our sleeves and do something.” Yes, of course, Germany has problems too. The trains, for example, don’t always run on time. But, says Stegner: “Germany has luxury problems.”
The economic and political expert from the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung” sees things completely differently. Julia Löhr criticizes Scholz’s economic forecasts in particular. Two weeks ago, the Chancellor predicted an incredible recovery in Germany. Löhr: “But look at the figures: incoming orders in industry are falling, the business climate is falling, exports are falling, the economic forecasts are still poor. And sometimes you just ask yourself: “What is going on in the Chancellery?”
Stegner does what traffic light politicians often do: He points to the war in Ukraine and the fact that the traffic light coalition has managed to ensure that people did not have to freeze even without Russian gas. He again calls for a reform or a suspension of the debt brake so that money is freed up for necessary investments. Under the existing conditions, the federal government’s growth package is “quite decent”. “The advice we always get is really cute: more on armaments, less on social issues. If I do that, I can buy Wagenknecht an extra load of champagne.” For Stegner, the draft budget has achieved important goals: Ukraine will continue to be supported, while at the same time the welfare state will be preserved.
Löhr: SPD has become the party of welfare recipients
This applies, for example, to the citizen’s allowance. Those who refuse to work will be punished more severely. However, anyone who takes up work voluntarily will receive a bonus. How high this will be, however, is not yet clear, nor is how it will be financed.
But that’s not enough for Löhr. “Of the four million people receiving citizen’s allowance, 1.6 million are available for the job market,” she says. “And the issue must be how to get more of them into work.” Stegner accuses her: “I’m surprised why the SPD has become such a party for people receiving social benefits and no longer represents the interests of those who work.”
But Stegner wants to be there for working people in particular. That is why he is calling for an increase in the minimum wage. In doing so, he hopes to ensure that fewer people receiving the basic income will have to top up their income.
End of traffic light dispute
Löhr criticizes that it is not untypical for the traffic light coalition that a new coalition dispute broke out immediately after the draft budget was announced. And sports journalist Reinhold Beckmann hopes “that in view of the elections in September you do not always air your conflicts publicly on stage, but that you discipline yourselves. Because what is now at hand can change this republic quite significantly. That is what really gets on my nerves when I see how every little conflict is aired publicly.”
Like Mützenich’s criticism of the draft budget, which Löhr points out. The SPD is divided, says the journalist. There is the Scholz SPD, which wants to stick to the debt brake, and there is the SPD faction that wants to declare an emergency in order to suspend the debt brake. Löhr: “There is no exceptional emergency this year.”
But Stegner would rather not make too much of the current dispute in the SPD. In the end, everything will turn out well, he is sure. The budget legislator will pass a budget with the votes of the traffic light coalition, he says. “And there will be no new elections.”