Chancellery, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of the Environment, Visitor Center of the Bundestag plus other buildings: The federal government has a whole series of expensive new construction projects in the planning stage, which, according to research by the news portal t-online, together cost at least 2.1 billion euros. A spokesman for the Federal Ministry of Finance told the portal that the need had to be re-examined because more mobile and home work had been done since the corona pandemic. Therefore, “all spatial planning from the time before the pandemic should also be reviewed in a meaningful way”.
The CSU agreed. “It’s not the time for ostentatious prestige traffic lights,” explained General Secretary Martin Huber. “While many people don’t know how to fill their refrigerators at the end of the month, the insatiable traffic light debt squanders billions on unnecessary swanky projects.”
The extension of the Chancellery was planned in 2016 under the then Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble (CDU). However, the costs have risen in recent years from 485 million euros to 600 million, and now to 777 million euros. Today, the Union speaks out against the construction.
The budgetary spokeswoman for the left in the Bundestag, Gesine Lötzsch, pointed out that a large part of the civil servants are already working from home. “This development must lead to a reduction in office space,” she told t-online. A moratorium on further federal buildings is therefore necessary. The federal government is also hiring more and more staff. “It can’t go on like this. We need a personnel cap.”
The projects in detail:
At the same time, Finance Minister Lindner wants to examine all federal spending for savings potential in the ongoing budget dispute in the coalition. “We will advise each individual expenditure in the federal budget on its justification and amount,” he told the “Rheinische Post” on Saturday. There is a financial gap that must be filled “by renunciation”. The left faction accused Lindner of setting the wrong priorities.
“As of now, we will have a deficit of 14 to 18 billion euros in the coming year with revenues of 424 billion euros,” the minister predicted. “This budget gap must be generated through renunciation.” If at the same time “additional spending priorities” should be set, for example in the areas of defense or education, “then you have to make even more cuts elsewhere”.
The coalition has been arguing about next year’s budget for weeks. Lindner had canceled the usual adoption of budget key points in mid-March; it is now assumed that it will fail altogether. Instead, a detailed budget is to be adopted in June.
