coalition
FDP politicians expect heated discussions about the 2025 budget
Otto Fricke is the budget policy spokesman for the FDP parliamentary group (archive photo). photo
© Britta Pedersen/dpa
Is the next traffic light dispute imminent? To date, the individual departments have to submit savings proposals to the Ministry of Finance for 2025. According to the FDP, there are likely to be distribution battles.
The budget policy spokesman of the FDP parliamentary group, Otto Fricke, expects similarly heated discussions for the 2025 federal budget as for the 2024 budget. It’s about distribution battles between the ministries, in which everyone tries to take the easy way out for themselves, Fricke said on Deutschlandfunk.
“But I hope that things will be different in terms of communication,” said the FDP politician. The key thing in budget negotiations is “not to immediately announce every detail to the public until you know exactly where the journey is going.” But it is normal for there to be discussions. “I’ve been doing this since 2002. Regardless of the political constellation, it’s always a debate, but – and this is important – it’s part of democracy.”
During the budget negotiations, the individual departments still have to submit savings proposals to the Ministry of Finance. There is talk that a total of around 20 billion euros would have to be saved.
The Green Party parliamentary group warned Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) against tough austerity measures. The Green Party’s chief budget officer Sven-Christian Kindler told the Düsseldorf “Rheinische Post” (Thursday): “There is war in Europe, the economy is stagnating, the climate crisis is worsening, and the social mood is polarized. These are not normal times.” According to Kindler, excessive austerity measures would worsen the economic situation and endanger social peace and democratic stability.