According to SPD chairwoman Saskia Esken, the traffic light coalition wants to set the schedule for the adoption of the 2024 federal budget shortly. “That will have to be clarified in the coming week,” said Esken on the ZDF program “Maybrit Illner”.
“We have a very clear schedule that is very ambitious. And we very much hope that we can stick to it. If we know that we can stick to it, then we will say so.” The CDU chairman Friedrich Merz called for clarity now as to when the budget should be ready for the coming year.
The Federal Constitutional Court had declared the reallocation of 60 billion euros in the 2021 budget to be null and void. The money was approved as a Corona loan, but was subsequently intended to be used for climate protection and the modernization of the economy. At the same time, the judges decided that the state was not allowed to set aside emergency loans for later years. That’s exactly what the federal government has done in special funds, among other things, to curb energy prices – which is now tearing additional holes in the budget.
The Bundestag is deliberating
As a result of this ruling, the adoption of the 2024 federal budget was stopped. Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) sees a “need for action” of 17 billion euros. The Bundestag is today discussing a supplementary budget for the current year in first reading. An emergency situation should be declared for him and the debt brake should be suspended.
Loans worth around 45 billion euros are to be subsequently legally secured. The federal government has already used most of this money to curb energy prices – it was only after the court ruling that it became clear that this was unconstitutional. The budget update is intended to ensure that the 2023 budget does not violate the constitution.
It is still unclear how the traffic light coalition plans to solve the financial problem for the coming year. There have been repeated calls from the SPD to suspend the debt brake again – Lindner recently said that he was “not yet convinced” that the conditions for an emergency resolution would be met in 2024.
Esken: The crises continue
The debt brake anchored in the Basic Law sets strict limits on the federal government’s borrowing. However, an exception is possible in the event of natural disasters or extraordinary emergency situations – this has been used in recent years, for example because of the corona pandemic and the consequences of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine.
Esken emphasized on ZDF that the crises were continuing. Bundestag Vice President Katrin Göring-Eckardt (Greens) also said that the burdens from the war in Ukraine would still be present next year. “If you are of the opinion that you want to continue supplying weapons, I think we agree on that, if you are of the opinion that you want to ensure reconstruction, then that is an extraordinary situation.”
CDU leader Merz assumed in the broadcast that declaring the emergency for 2023 “can be done like that”. For 2024, however, he agrees with Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP): “The state does not have an income problem, but rather an expenditure problem.” The traffic lights first have to clarify this among themselves. “With tax revenues of 1,000 billion euros and a federal budget of 445 billion euros, there can be no emergency if you have to save 17 billion euros elsewhere. I believe that it works,” said Merz.
