2024-07-13 07:04:52
After tough negotiations, the traffic light coalition has agreed on a budget for 2025. But alongside general relief, there are also critical voices.
The leaders of the traffic light government have agreed on the federal budget for the coming year. Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD), Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) and Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) had been struggling to find a solution to the budget dispute since Thursday afternoon.
Scholz arrived in the Bundestag on Friday morning to inform the SPD parliamentary group of the decision. At the same time, a parliamentary group meeting of the Greens took place, which Habeck attended. The Liberals were informed by Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) via video link.
CSU-Chef Markus Söder sees the traffic light breakthrough in the 2025 budget as not sufficient for a fundamental change in Germany. “The coalition appears to have averted the match point of decline last night,” said the Bavarian Prime Minister in Berlin.
The traffic light coalition “pulled itself together again, mobilized its last remaining strength to find an agreement.” He added: “I don’t think that will be enough. The knockout has only been postponed.” Söder spoke of a “spectacle of creeping decline.”
The CDU budget expert Mathias Middelberg criticized the budget agreement of the traffic light coalition. “From what we know so far, the so-called growth boost does not live up to its name.” The genuine “economic turnaround” demanded by the FDP and urgently needed will not happen. Individual elements could be useful, but a strong boost is not to be expected, said Middelberg.
Union chief budget officer: Agreement good for coalition, not for Germany
The Union’s chief budget officer Christian Haase has expressed skepticism about the coalition leaders’ agreement on the 2025 federal budget. Haase told the German Press Agency: “The agreement may be good for the continued existence of the coalition, but there are serious doubts as to whether it is good for Germany. The months-long process alone was a political squabble with almost daily dissonances and far from a quiet government. We will have to wait and see how long the agreement lasts.”
The upcoming state elections with potentially poor election results for the traffic light factions will show whether the agreement will still hold and whether the debt brake will remain in place. “The result seems to be half-hearted or even no solutions at all – for example on migration, the armed forces or the citizen’s allowance.”
Union Parliamentary Secretary Thorsten Frei (CDU) told the “Rheinische Post”: “The only thing that is certain today is that this will be a summer of heated debates.” Frei stressed that the government once again wanted to “maneuver through and postpone the real questions.”
The turning point in security policy proclaimed by Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) has been “finally buried” with the agreement, said Frei, referring to the defense budget, which is reportedly set to increase less than Defense Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD) had hoped.
There had been much speculation beforehand about the failure of the budget negotiations – for example, there was speculation about the coalition breaking up. When asked how close the coalition was to breaking up during the last night of negotiations, Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck the dpa: “It’s a spacious house, there’s not so much space for everything.”
Lang: “Prove ability to act”
The Green European politician Anton Hofreiter was relieved about the breakthrough. “I think that, given the global situation, it would have been completely irresponsible if the government had fallen apart now,” the chairman of the European Affairs Committee in the Bundestag told journalists. Germany has “a great responsibility” for Europe’s cohesion and defense readiness. “Of course, the agreement must be looked at closely.”
Similar conciliatory tones came from the party leader, Omid Nouripour: “Especially in this tense geopolitical situation, it is an important signal that this government is demonstrating its ability to act.”
In summary, he described the agreement as a strengthening of social cohesion. “We are providing important growth impulses for the economy, combating the shortage of skilled workers through better pay for work in old age and getting refugees into jobs more easily and quickly,” the party leader told dpa.