When Christian Lindner spoke in a current hour in the German Bundestag this Thursday afternoon, he had exhausting hours behind him and many more ahead of him. After the big bang from Karlsruhe, the Federal Finance Minister is at the center of the discussion about what happens next – financially and politically.
The Federal Constitutional Court declared the reallocation of Corona loans to the Climate and Transformation Fund (KTF) void on Wednesday. That’s why the government is suddenly missing a lot of money that was planned for energy transition projects: a total of 60 billion euros. A “worst case scenario,” as the traffic light government says.
In a first step, Lindner deleted the loan authorizations of 60 billion and blocked the fund’s economic plan. But the traffic light coalition is now facing distribution struggles that are likely to shake the already struggling alliance. Which projects have priority and where can money still be spent? The SPD MP Achim Post appealed to the Bundestag: “Climate protection and social cohesion must not be the losers.”
Since the ruling, the SPD and the Greens have also been loudly questioning the debt brake and calling for new sources of income for the state. Lindner and his FDP, on the other hand, see things fundamentally differently. The debt brake and the waiver of tax increases are the “guardrails for the federal government’s actions,” said the Finance Minister in the Bundestag. “Toying with tax increases” is the “always the same solution in search of a problem,” said Lindner, who claimed: “In fact, the state doesn’t have a revenue problem.” Rather, government spending has continued to rise for many years. Lindner was demonstratively confident: “We will have to make more effective policies with less money than in the last decade.” This would be possible if the government clarified its priorities.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced in the SPD parliamentary group that the necessary decisions should be made by the end of the year.
Meanwhile, after the verdict, the Union was pleased with the comprehensive success of its constitutional complaint and criticized the traffic lights. “The turning point has been a reality for you since yesterday at the latest,” said CDU leader Friedrich Merz in the current hour. The traffic light must rearrange its budget priorities and return to constitutionally compliant legislation. CSU regional group leader Alexander Dobrindt even called out to the SPD, Greens and FDP: “Their coalition idea is simply history.”
The tones from the conservative and left-wing opposition were similar: Left-wing parliamentary group leader Dietmar Bartsch spoke of a “red card” from Karlsruhe. The verdict is “an expression of dubious financial policy.” The federal government must finally work seriously, otherwise the verdict would have been “the beginning of the end for this federal government.”