Does the Karlsruhe ruling on the supplementary budget leave larger gaps than expected? The CDU budget politician Middelberg also sees other parts of the financial planning at risk – the 200 billion euro “double oomph” is also at stake.
After the Federal Constitutional Court’s budget ruling, CDU budget politician Mathias Middelberg also sees other parts of the federal government’s financial planning at risk. The verdict caused a “huge problem,” Middelberg said on Deutschlandfunk.
The Federal Constitutional Court judged the use of Corona loans for climate projects to be unconstitutional on Wednesday. The ruling tears a 60 billion euro hole in the financing of the federal government’s climate projects.
Not only the 60 billion euros from the climate and transformation fund are at stake, said Middelberg, “but also the double whammy, these 200 billion,” because they were processed in a similar process and booked for other years. The negative criteria of the Constitutional Court also apply here. In 2021, Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) described financial aid in the energy crisis as “double whammy”.
The Ministry of Finance must now clarify very carefully what conclusions should be drawn from the judgment, demanded Middelberg. He accused the federal government of downplaying the verdict. “That doesn’t come close to doing it justice.” He described the verdict as an “exit signal” for the FDP from the traffic light coalition.
Braun also warns of further effects
The CDU politician and chairman of the budget committee, Helge Braun, also warned of further effects of the Karlsruhe ruling. “There are other shadow budgets that Christian Lindner leads. And if they are also affected, then the task of finding new priorities in the budget is far greater than the question of this climate and transformation fund,” Braun told radio station Bayern 2 .
Greens-Group leader does not see any major projects in danger
Despite the Constitutional Court ruling, Green Party leader Katharina Dröge does not see the coalition’s core projects for building renovation, e-mobility or the expansion of district heating in danger. When asked whether these projects had now fallen by the wayside, Dröge’s morning magazine from ARD and ZDF said: “Absolutely not.” These are all important projects of the traffic light government “that must be continued”.
Dröge was convinced that the traffic light parties “will find a solution to this”. Various financing options could be discussed. The debt brake offers leeway, for example, through infrastructure companies. Subsidies could also be reduced in order to create more scope in the budget.
Dröge: Act together and in solidarity
The Green party leader does not expect a new argument at the traffic lights. “We now want to do this together and in solidarity.” All three parties are responsible for “quietly and noiselessly finding a solution.” At the same time, Dröge renewed the Greens’ call for a reform of the debt brake. Now it turns out that it “doesn’t offer enough flexibility.” The debt brake is “poorly crafted” and blocks future investments. Finance Minister Lindner (FDP) and Chancellor Scholz, however, are sticking to the debt brake.
FDP parliamentary group leader Christian Dürr was pleased that the judgment had now made it clear how the debt brake should be dealt with. The supplementary budget continued the policy of the previous Union-led government, he said on Deutschlandfunk. It is not an invention of Finance Minister Lindner or the Greens. We have to break with that now. Priorities must now be set in the budget.