2024-07-12 00:16:06
The traffic light coalition leaders recently negotiated the key points for the 2025 budget under high pressure. The compromise was reached early Friday morning. A look behind the scenes of the past few days.
In an almost exuberantly good mood, the Chancellor walks down the corridor of the parliamentary group floor shortly before seven on Friday morning. With a broad grin, he greets the lurking journalists, then disappears behind the doors of the Otto Wels Hall, where the SPD MPs are already waiting for him. The expectations are huge.
Because the traffic light leaders Olaf Scholz (SPD), Robert Habeck (Greens) and Christian Lindner (FDP) agreed on the 2025 budget confidentially among themselves, it was not just the public who was left to guess what the compromise would look like. Parliamentarians were also largely cut off from the flow of information. Now Scholz is expected to deliver.
After a short introduction by parliamentary group leader Rolf Mützenich, the Chancellor takes the floor, praises the agreement, but does not go into detail. 90 minutes, no figures, hardly any answers. That is what participants say. When asked, Scholz says: “Yes, I have forgotten a few things.” He remains vague afterward, however. He only promises a “Dear Friends” letter to the MPs.
Satisfactory? So-so. But well, some MPs will probably be happy that there was a compromise at all.
The coalition briefly held its breath when it became clear weeks ago what some had already feared: the government could not keep to last Wednesday, July 3, the original deadline for the cabinet decision on the budget. The reason: the budget for next year was still overbooked. Around 465 billion euros had been budgeted. A high single-digit billion sum was still missing, according to sources in the federal government. At the beginning, savings of 25 billion euros were even discussed.
For weeks, the Chancellor, the Minister of Economic Affairs and the Minister of Finance worked on the budget to close the gaps. Rebookings were made, postponed and savings were made. Then, on Friday night, the breakthrough came. Although the word “breakthrough” is almost too broad, the result is more a matter of fiddling around and less of a major political decision. The message, in any case, is that there is an agreement and the budget is in place. The cabinet is due to approve it on July 17.
What does the compromise look like now? What does it mean for the respective parties? And where were the problems recently? The final week at a glance.
Last weekend it was already becoming clear that a political agreement was planned for Friday. This would give the Finance Ministry enough time to get everything in place for a cabinet decision on July 17.
The murmuring began first in the SPD ranks. On Monday, they said that the Chancellor would not only attend the parliamentary group meeting on Tuesday, but also a special meeting on Friday. Apparently, negotiations had already made quite a bit of progress. The last adjustments at that point were the budgets of the Ministry of Labor (SPD), the Ministry of Family Affairs (Greens) and the Foreign Office (Greens).
When Scholz, Habeck and Lindner sat together on the government plane to Poland on Monday evening, there was still a break in negotiations. The wrong framework, according to those close to them. They wanted to meet again on Wednesday. The situation seemed to be clear to some of them by then. In the government questioning on early Wednesday afternoon, Scholz answered one of the few questions about the budget with determination: “It will surprise you.” The three’s ideas contained many good suggestions. At first glance, that doesn’t sound like there are any open options. But not everything had been clarified at that point.
On Thursday, the three will once again take most of the day to consult. While some MPs dance to Peter Schilling’s “Major Tom” at the Baden-Württemberg state representation’s summer party in the evening, Scholz, Habeck and Lindner will huddle together in the Chancellery – until the early hours of the morning.