Status: 11/22/2022 5:08 p.m
“Tricks”, bypassing the constitution and even concealment: In the budget debate, the opposition accused Finance Minister Lindner of not playing with open cards when it came to debt.
The budget planning of Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) has sparked massive criticism in the Bundestag. At the beginning of the final budget debate, opposition politicians accused the minister of using budgetary tricks to disguise massive new federal debt.
Lindner justified his draft for the 2023 federal budget – and his approach to financing special expenses caused by the crisis – with the need to protect citizens and companies in difficult times.
Union parliamentary group leader Matthias Middelberg (CDU) addressed the minister directly: “You make debts like no finance minister before you,” said Middelberg. The minister is a “record debt maker, more precisely one would have to say: record debt stockpiler”.
Middelberg: Lindner bypasses the constitution
The 2023 budget only adheres to the requirements of the debt brake in terms of form, said the CDU politician. In truth, Lindner took on a record amount of debt in the current year and stored it in special pots, bypassing the federal budget. “You’re only doing this whole operation to be able to pseudo-say that you’ll comply with the debt brake next year,” said Middelberg. In truth, Lindner is bypassing the constitution.
The traffic light wants to spend around 476 billion euros in the coming year. That’s around 20 billion less than this year. However, the government wants to fully exploit the credit leeway of the debt brake of around 45 billion euros.
However, the budget does not include other federal government spending financed by credit – such as the 100 billion euro special fund for the Bundeswehr and the 200 billion euro for the “double boom”, i.e. the electricity and gas price brake. If these expenditures were anchored in the budget, the federal government would fail to meet the debt brake requirement for the fourth time in a row in 2023.
Criticism from the Left: Many of the plans are not socially just
The AfD and the left also questioned the seriousness of budget planning. The budget spokesman for the AfD, Peter Boehringer, accused Lindner of “tricks” in circumventing the debt brake. “Special pots are not counted”, Lindner act “long in the budgetary emergency”.
The left finance expert Gesine Lötzsch criticized that the coalition did not use the wealthy more for financing and did not introduce an excess profit tax on crisis-related special income. Gas suppliers, weapons manufacturers and real estate groups are currently making high profits. “You have to stop this brazen redistribution,” said Lötzsch.
Many of the plans are not socially fair, for example there is still no rent cap, no price cap on basic foods and the planned basic child security is being delayed more and more. “That’s the wrong priority,” said the left-wing politician.
Finance minister rejects tax increases
In the debate, Lindner defended the federal government’s high level of borrowing. In “times of great economic uncertainty,” the state must “show tremendous fiscal strength,” he said. This is exactly what the federal government is doing – with its protective shields for the economy and society and with its budget draft for the coming year.
The minister rejected the accusation that he could only meet the requirements of the debt brake through trickery. He presented a budget “that respects the debt brake,” said Lindner. The debt rule in the Basic Law is more flexible than many think. The FDP politician continued to reject tax increases. Rather, he promised further relief for the 2024 federal budget.
Kindler: No funding proposals from the opposition
Coalition representatives defended Lindner’s draft in the debate. The SPD housekeeper Achim Post expressly thanked the FDP politician “for a very clever budget draft”. The budget ensures the state’s “ability to act in these times of crisis and war,” Post said.
The Greens budget expert Sven-Christian Kindler took up the Union’s accusation of unsound budget management – and directed it against the Union: CDU and CSU had made “no concrete proposals” in the deliberations on financing the gas and electricity price brake, said Kindler. “Budget truth and clarity also applies to the opposition,” he said. “They have to decide what kind of opposition they want to be: constructive and state-supporting or just populist.”
The Bundestag wants to finally vote on the federal budget for 2023 on Friday. Until then, the individual budgets of the federal ministries will be debated in the plenary session of parliament.