In the budget dispute, Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) informed the other departments of the absolute budget funds available to them. The Treasury announced on Thursday. The departments are now called upon to “develop their respective ceilings on their own responsibility”. This means that the ministries can distribute the maximum amount set by Lindner among their various expenditure headings. According to the ministry, the 2024 budget remains unchanged “that it must be drawn up within the framework of the requirements of the debt brake”. The procedure had been agreed in advance with Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) and Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck (Greens). This is the first time in weeks that there has been movement in the budget negotiations. Because the ministries could not agree with Lindner on how to close the expected gap in the budget of around 20 billion euros, the finance minister had initially postponed the planned key figures decision in the cabinet and then completely dispensed with key figures. With the procedure he has now chosen, he is in principle setting benchmarks for the other departments himself instead of negotiating them with them. Loud Handelsblatt should save all departments, with the exception of the Ministry of Defense. In order to close the budget gap, however, additional savings would have to be made, for example with subsidies.
The budget spokesman for the Greens, Sven-Christian Kindler, told the SZ that there should be no “blind austerity policy” in social and societal cohesion and the climate-neutral transformation of the economy. “If you really want to save billions of euros in a sensible way, the finance minister must now get to the climate-damaging subsidies, as agreed in the coalition agreement.” He called blanket cuts “with the lawnmower and then with the exception of a single department” “outdated”. From circles in the Ministry of Finance, it was said that Lindner discussed the procedure with his colleagues on Wednesday, in the preliminary talks for the cabinet meeting. Both the minister and the chancellor emphasized that the government draft would be decided before the summer break. The last possible date for this would be July 5th.