2023-11-11 16:18:11
It was the week of spending money. On Monday night, after 17 tough hours of negotiations, the federal government donated billions more to the states and municipalities to accommodate the numerous refugees. A few days later, after a long dispute, Economics Minister Robert Habeck and Finance Minister Christian Lindner agreed on electricity subsidies for industry, at a cost of an additional 5.5 billion euros.
Ralph Bollmann
Correspondent for economic policy and deputy head of economics and “Money & More” for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung in Berlin.
And all of this in a year in which budget negotiations are said to be more difficult than they have been in a long time, because the debt brake will apply again in 2024, after the exceptional period of the pandemic and gas shortage. The budget should be finalized next week and the Bundestag wants to pass it at the beginning of December.
How is it that the math ends up working out again? Here’s some clarification on a few household myths.
There is not enough money for investments.
Yes, there are problems with investments. New railway lines are delayed by decades, renovation or new construction of dilapidated motorway bridges are not progressing quickly enough. But is it mainly because of the money? Hardly likely. Transport Minister Volker Wissing, of all people, recently had more approved but unspent money than any other cabinet colleague – more than eight billion euros. This is due to a lack of staff in the planning departments of states and municipalities, inefficient bureaucracy, a lack of construction capacity – but above all due to the massive resistance that affected local citizens put up against almost every new investment project (and politicians who often give in to such pressures all too quickly). . The federal government wanted to give the people of Lower Saxony a fast new railway line along the motorway from Hanover to Hamburg, but they have now torpedoed the construction – especially SPD leader Lars Klingbeil, who has his constituency in the area. Today, new railway lines can almost only be implemented if they run largely in tunnels, such as the planned route from Frankfurt via Fulda to Erfurt. That makes things very expensive again.
The government can no longer even afford such important things as digitalization and political education.
Even people who aren’t particularly interested in budget issues noticed it in the summer: the traffic light coalition wants to cut down on digitalization and political education, scandal! And this at a time when democracy is on the brink and the country’s digital backwardness is complained about everywhere. But half long. In both cases these were budget items that had recently not been fully utilized. On top of that, such moves are also tactics in budget negotiations. By putting these budget items up for discussion, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser wanted to put pressure on the Finance Minister: Look, that’s how bad the coalition partner’s austerity is! In such cases, public outcry is part of the political calculation.
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