Supplementary budget in the Bundestag: debate on location regulations

The Bundestag debated the traffic light coalition’s supplementary budget. While representatives of the government factions praised the budget policy, the opposition continued to raise constitutional concerns.

The supplementary budget is the consequence of the Karlsruhe ruling in November. The Federal Constitutional Court had banned the reallocation of loan authorizations to deal with the corona pandemic for climate and energy projects, leaving the government with a huge budget gap.

Liberal budget politician Otto Fricke pointed this out right at the start of the debate. He explained and defended the traffic light coalition’s actions. “We are going through a transfer to the core budget, making the appropriate adjustments without creating new debt opportunities and without incurring new debts. This is how you deal with the ruling. This is how this coalition deals with the ruling, by being clear and clearly understands what is necessary in terms of requirements. This is a budget policy as it should be.”

Fricke argued: The billions to support the victims of the flood in the Ahr Valley as well as the electricity and gas price aid would now be correctly included in the budget. This is made possible by subsequently suspending the debt brake again. The liberal took the opportunity to criticize the opposition Union for statements made in recent days. Their representatives had accused the traffic light of trickery and deception.

Accusations of populism against the CDU/CSU

CDU budget expert Mathias Middelberg once again spoke of “failed budget accounting technology”. The CDU/CSU still have constitutional concerns because other special funds continue to overpay the regular budget: “That’s not a good compromise for this country. It’s more of an attempt to repair the crack in your traffic light. You don’t have enough glue 60 billion euros have been lost, and now the gap must be filled elsewhere.”

The traffic light representatives had seriously examined the verdict from Karlsruhe and presented the results, said Dennis Rohde from the SPD, also defending the supplementary budget. If the Union accuses the government of being hypocritical, then that is “destructive populism”. With a view to the seating arrangement in parliament, where the CDU/CSU sits right next to the AfD, Rohde said: “I think the seating arrangement in this parliament is chosen very correctly, dear colleagues.”

Wagenknecht: “The traffic lights are the emergency for our country”

AfD MP Peter Boehringer described the 2023 budget as still “simply unconstitutional”. He continued: “Your government is now retrospectively declaring an emergency situation. However, no one had noticed such a situation in 2023 until the verdict on November 15th. You yourself moderated it and declared it over.”

For the first time as a non-attached MP, Sarah Wagenknecht took the Bundestag lectern and used her speaking time to fundamentally criticize the government coalition’s budget policy. “The traffic light is not in an emergency situation. The traffic light is the emergency situation for our country.”

The debate was characterized by expected positioning. By the way: Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner from the FDP did not take part. Bundestag President Bärbel Bas announced during the meeting that he was ill.