The SPD general secretary has in the daily topics defended the 2024 budget draft. The package is “largely unobjectionable” and most of the points are supported. Kühnert considers the farmers’ protests to be “completely normal”.
A few days after the agreement on the 2024 federal budget, SPD General Secretary Kevin Kühnert commented on the much-discussed budget compromise. In an interview with the daily topics the politician defends the government’s actions.
He put the quarrels within the coalition that had emerged in recent days over the agreed savings into perspective. The package was “largely unobjectionable.” Most of the points were supported, by “some with more enthusiasm, others with less.”
The politician said it was “completely normal” for interest groups such as farmers to take to the streets and point out “what they see as undue hardship.” Politicians could also react to this; the Bundestag would have to “go over” the proposal again.
Essentially, however, people will stand by the agreements. For the SPD, the austerity plans also included “bitter pills,” said Kühnert. He referred to “backsliding” in citizens’ money.
“Now would be the time for different proposals”
With its ruling on the federal budget, the Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe had performed a “major mental exercise”. There is a double-digit billion hole in the budget. There was no majority for the SPD’s alternative proposals, such as easing the debt brake. “Now would be the time for different suggestions,” said Kühnert. However, counter-financing is always crucial.
Kühnert doesn’t see any danger of a loss of trust in the government: “That’s the normal course of things.” If in the end you get the impression that the ceiling is too short and there is not enough at the back and front, then you need to talk about whether you are in a budget emergency, says Kühnert.
Silent against planned cuts for farmers
Meanwhile, Kühnert’s party colleague Manuela Schwesig also criticized the federal government’s aim to end tax breaks for farmers. “We need strong agriculture, also so that prices remain stable. The cuts for agriculture go too far and come too suddenly,” said the Prime Minister of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania to “Stern”. “A sensible solution has to be found.”
In Berlin on Monday, thousands of farmers vented their anger with protests and a long column of tractors. Farmers President Joachim Rukwied called on the traffic light coalition to withdraw savings plans for agricultural diesel and vehicle tax. Federal Agriculture Minister Cem Özdemir (Greens) expressed understanding for the farmers’ discontent and announced further discussions in the government. The FDP parliamentary group in the Bundestag had already announced a veto at the weekend.