From the Union’s perspective, the traffic light coalition’s austerity measures are not enough and the budget policy is wrong. Federal Finance Minister Lindner defended the plans in the Bundestag and referred to important investments in infrastructure.
After a long struggle over the 2024 budget and a groundbreaking ruling by the Federal Constitutional Court, the Federal Finance Minister’s plans are now being discussed in the Bundestag. There is a hail of criticism from the ranks of the opposition.
The Union accuses the traffic light coalition of misguided budget policy. Party deputy Mathias Middelberg said Germany was living beyond its means. He called for a reform package that also addresses large cost blocks such as social spending for citizens’ money and migration.
Traffic light coalition defends its plans
Federal Finance Minister Lindner defended the plans. “I’m not talking about an austerity budget, but rather a design budget,” said the FDP politician at the beginning of the meeting. He referred to record investments in rails, roads and networks.
At the same time, there is relief for citizens, even if crisis-related aid is now expiring. All of this is happening within the framework of the debt brake.
It was important for the coalition partner SPD that there were no cuts in social spending. “We are strengthening the welfare state and that is important for our democracy,” said SPD budget expert Dennis Rohde.
Sven-Christian Kindler, the budget spokesman for the Green parliamentary group, sees it similarly. The traffic light withstood the pressure to save on social benefits such as citizens’ money. “We have not complied with this populism,” said Kindler. The subsistence level and therefore human dignity are not a bargaining chip in the household.
AfD considers the budget for unconstitutional
Peter Boehringer, budget policy spokesman for the AfD, criticized that there were too many shadow budgets. The energy transition, the “woke social transformation, the financing of a war that is not ours, and the super-expensive mass immigration” are only possible through this.
The AfD considers the budget presented to be unconstitutional and has announced that it will take the matter to the Federal Constitutional Court. To do this, however, it needs the support of the Union, which has already rejected the project in the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung”.