Three weeks after the Karlsruhe ruling, there is still no solution in sight for the 2024 budget. SPD leader Klingbeil called for the traffic lights to be changed daily topics to work “hard” on a solution. Strong criticism came from the Union.
For weeks, Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Economics Minister Robert Habeck and Finance Minister Christian Lindner have been trying to close the 17 billion euro gap in the 2024 budget caused by the Federal Constitutional Court’s ruling. Most recently, they were said to have struggled in the Chancellery on Wednesday evening about where and how much savings could be made. But as of today it is clear: the budget for 2024 can no longer be passed this year.
“Although we have done everything we can to achieve this, the budget for 2024 can no longer be decided on time this year,” wrote the parliamentary managing director of the SPD parliamentary group, Katja Mast, in a text message coordinated with parliamentary group leader Rolf Mützenich Fraction. In the middle of the budget crisis, the three-day SPD federal party conference begins in Berlin on Friday. Not an ideal time for the SPD and its chancellor – also because the approval is loud ARD GermanyTrend towards the Social Democrats continues to fall – with Scholz even to a record low.
Klingbeil: A solution before the party conference would have been good
In the daily topics This is probably why co-party leader Lars Klingbeil called on the government to work “hard” on a solution. “I expect everyone who is responsible to pull themselves together now and we can quickly reach a budget,” said Klingbeil. “I would have liked us to have a solution before the SPD party conference, that is not the case, but the talks are continuing now and a budget must come quickly.”
The SPD knows that it has to bear political responsibility, said Klingbeil, even if it means “that we have to forego things that are important to us.” He did not want to comment on exactly where the party was prepared to give up: “These are not negotiations or debates that I am conducting on an open stage. This has to be done in a confidential setting between the Federal Chancellor, the Vice Chancellor and the Finance Minister and then in the The coalition committee needs to be clarified. It’s no use at all if we fight battles and argue on the open stage. We know that in the end this also weakens trust.”
Union faction appeals Speaker of Parliament
Meanwhile, the Union faction called on Bundestag President Bärbel Bas to call the traffic lights to order in the budget crisis. The coalition’s approach so far has been characterized by lack of planning and stubbornness, according to a letter from Parliamentary Managing Director Thorsten Frei to the SPD politician, which is available to the dpa news agency. “Even budget law, the royal law of parliament, is no longer spared from the chaos of traffic lights.”
The way the government and the traffic light factions deal with the Bundestag is unacceptable, writes Frei. The budget discussions in the committees on Thursday were a new low point. Apparently the members of the coalition factions did not fully know what they were actually voting on.
Söder: “Very, very bad signal”
Strong criticism also came from CSU boss Markus Söder: “It would have been the first duty now to give the people, the country and the economy security as to what would happen next in this situation,” he said br. He thinks it is difficult that the government in Berlin can no longer agree on the essentials, namely a common budget. He sees “no real idea how to do the whole thing.” This is a “very, very bad signal. Another crack in the trust towards the traffic lights.”
The initially failed budget agreement shows the “powerlessness of the coalition,” said Söder. “If you can’t agree on a budget and have to govern using emergency procedures – that’s a catastrophic situation. Wars and terror are raging around us. And Germany is not in a position to solve its own problems.”
Kretschmann demands Planning security
The Prime Minister of Baden-Württemberg, Winfried Kretschmann (Greens), told the “Tagesspiegel” with regard to the domestic automobile industry that Germany was “in competition with China, California and Singapore”. The traffic lights must “keep an eye on this instead of leading to arguments”. Kretschmann called for “planning security” and said that “every month counts”. “If you lose industries that are in the process of transformation, you are doing your own location a disservice,” he said.
Criticism also came from left-wing politician Dietmar Bartsch: The delays in the federal budget were “extremely embarrassing and a low point in the traffic light”. “This federal government is already halfway through a dead end,” Bartsch told the dpa news agency. It is disrespectful to citizens and parliament to leave the country in the dark about next year’s public finances. “We are moving further and further away from orderly parliamentary procedures,” said Bartsch. “Parliament’s royal right – the budget right – is being abused.”