FDP presents position paper on the budget – SPD and Greens angry

First the “economic turnaround”, now the “budget turnaround” – the FDP is pushing its coalition partners ahead with position papers. They react angrily. The SPD in particular criticizes the liberal plans for pension policy.

With the five-point plan that the FDP presidium wants to adopt this Monday, the Liberals are calling for a “generationally fair budget policy”. This must comply with the debt limit of the Basic Law and must not overburden young people when financing pensions, it says.

From the Liberals’ point of view, there must be reforms to the social systems and the abolition of pensions at 63 – this is about the pension without deductions after a particularly long insurance period.

“Pension at 63” was the name given to the pension without deductions after 45 years of insurance, since initially people born before 1953 could then retire at the age of 63 without deductions. The age limit for this is now 64 years and 4 months for those born in 1960. For younger people, the entry age will increase to 65 by 2029.

Criticism especially from the SPD

The FDP’s plans have met with criticism from the coalition partners SPD and Greens. The Social Democrats in particular react negatively. The attacks on pensions by the Liberals and the Union have become a tiring ritual, said SPD General Secretary Kevin Kühnert to the Tagesspiegel. Abolishing the current rules of pension law “would mean a pension cut for millions of employees,” he said.

SPD party leader Saskia Esken told the Süddeutsche Zeitung that it would be of little help if the negotiations on the 2025 budget were accompanied by party-related position papers every week. She rejected the FDP’s criticism of the pension at 63 and citizen’s benefit. Social security in Germany is not negotiable for the SPD. “In particular, increasing the retirement age is out of the question for us, especially not for those who have worked hard for many decades and therefore have the opportunity to retire early,” said Esken.

“Household must challenges satisfy”

SPD parliamentary group deputy Achim Post said that the Social Democrats would not allow the FDP to make pension cuts and cuts in social cohesion the subject of budget negotiations. “The last thing our country needs in this difficult time is a shrinking of social cohesion.”

He can “only warn against making abstract savings ideas the budget policy measure of all things,” said Post. “In view of war and crises, the top priority is that the budget must do justice to reality and its challenges. And that certainly cannot be achieved with a trimmed-down austerity budget.”

Greens question debt brake

Green Party deputy Konstantin von Notz criticized the FDP’s demand for compliance with the 2025 debt brake. “In times when our freedom is under as much pressure as it is currently from an aggressive Russia and extremists of all stripes, certainties must be put to the test – too the debt brake in its current form,” he said.

With regard to necessary investments in the Bundeswehr, police and cybersecurity, he said that these are very fundamental questions for our community and not investments that it would be nice to be able to make.

The dispute over the federal budget continues

The coalition dispute over the federal budget for 2025 continues. It is known that several ministries do not want to comply with the strict savings requirements of Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) and have reported additional requirements.

Development Minister Schulze (SPD) once again warned against excessive savings in her house’s budget. There have already been significant cuts in the development area, she said on Sunday evening Report from Berlin.

“For the security that we need in Germany, we need military security, we need diplomacy, but we also need development cooperation,” she said. “We cannot withdraw from this responsibility if security in Germany is important to us. And that is important to us, and that is why development policy is a central part of it.”