2024-08-15 18:37:20
Coalition dispute
Traffic light coalition wants to calm budget dispute
Updated on 07.08.2024Reading time: 3 min.
Two reports have reignited the debate over the federal budget. There are now conciliatory tones and proposed solutions – but the discontent remains.
The traffic light coalition is clearly trying to pull itself together in the new dispute over the federal budget. Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) appeared willing to talk in an interview and advised a factual discussion. SPD leader Lars Klingbeil said the federal government must now concentrate on clarifying where the missing five billion euros could come from. He expects the federal government to do its job “and then not keep doing this public dance.”
In recent days, the budget dispute within the traffic light coalition has flared up again. The background to this are three projects that are intended to reduce the funding gap in the budget for the coming year by a total of eight billion euros. Due to legal and economic concerns, Lindner had commissioned reports to evaluate the plans. These partially confirmed the concerns, but also showed ways to implement at least two of the three measures.
Lindner explained that he could easily imagine converting planned subsidies to Deutsche Bahn amounting to 3.6 billion euros into equity or loans. According to the reports, this plan is also legally viable – even if a loan to the indebted federal company is not considered economically wise by the Finance Ministry’s scientific advisory board. The financing gap in the budget would thus be reduced to a good five billion euros, Lindner told the Neue Berliner Redaktionsgesellschaft.
The FDP leader does not want to pursue the Chancellor’s Office’s idea of using unused gas price cap funds from the KfW development bank amounting to 4.9 billion euros for other purposes in the budget. Both reports had classified this as potentially unlawful.
The third project, loans for the motorway company, depends on the design, said Lindner. “For the Autobahn GmbH, a completely new model would have to be created, as it has no income to repay. There is scepticism here.” Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) said on Tuesday that strengthening the railway and motorway company was possible even after the reports.
Scholz, Lindner and Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck (Greens) want to look for solutions again by mid-August. Their ideas still differ, said Lindner. “In any case, there is still a need for clarification and decisions.” The draft budget is to be forwarded to the Bundestag next week, which needs a lot of time to discuss it.
Habeck told the Funke media group that he would not comment on the matter until a solution had been found. At the same time, people close to him said that the economics minister was very irritated by the approach of his cabinet colleague Lindner to publish a one-sided and selective report instead of consulting with the government partners about solutions.
SPD leader Klingbeil also sharply criticized the communication. “It would have been possible to avoid another open argument,” he said. The evaluation of the reports could have taken place in the background, quietly, calmly and without noise. “This is government action, it must not be a drama here in society, it must take place.”
The opposition Union was upset with Scholz and advised the FDP to leave the traffic light coalition. Scholz had complained to “Zeit Online” that the actually clear vote of the legal opinion had been “temporarily misunderstood”. He did not name Lindner – but for the Union it is nevertheless clear: “A Chancellor who publicly denies his finance minister his competences and treats him like a schoolboy is a unique occurrence.” Union budget politician Christian Haase told the “Rheinische Post” that the incident highlighted the disunity of the coalition.