bFederal Finance Minister Christian Lindner has called for a multi-year moratorium on social spending and subsidies in order to be able to invest more money in defense. “I'm not concerned with the fact that we have to get rid of things now. This can also be discussed. But the most important thing is that there are not always new subsidies, new social spending, new standards,” said the FDP leader on the ZDF program “Maybrit Illner”. There is already quite a lot of that. “If we could manage to get by with what we have for three years, then that would be a really big step towards consolidation.”
Green Party leader Ricarda Lang also said Germany needs to invest more money to support Ukraine and to help make Europe more independent of the US in defense. But she qualified: “We must not pit external security against social security in the country.” It will not be possible to finance these tasks from the current budget. “We have to find other ways to do this.”
The SPD's budget spokesman, Dennis Rohde, also rejected cuts in the social budget to the “Rheinische Post”. “It is already clear to me: there will be no clear-cutting of the welfare state with the SPD,” Rohde told the newspaper. Before the budget ruling by the Federal Constitutional Court last year, the SPD politician also expects “complex” budget planning for the 2025 federal budget. “As soon as the parliamentary procedure for the 2025 federal budget begins and we have a government draft, we will examine what specific proposals the Federal Ministry of Finance will make and where Parliament, in its role as budget legislator, must once again ensure the necessary balance,” said Rohde .
Fuest: Welfare state will be smaller
The general manager of the Paritätischer Wohlfahrtsverband, Ulrich Schneider, rejected the proposal. This is destructive for social cohesion, he told the newspapers of the Funke media group. There should not be cuts in the social sector in order to increase the defense budget.
According to the ZDF political barometer, 72 percent of citizens are in favor of more spending on the Bundeswehr and defense, even if this means making savings in other areas. In April 2023, approval for this was significantly lower at 59 percent.
Clemens Fuest, President of the Ifo Economic Research Institute, said that there would be no way around cuts in the social sector. “Cannons and butter – that would be nice if that were possible. But this is a land of milk and honey. That doesn't work. But guns without butter.” The welfare state will continue to be financed. “But it will just be smaller.” Lindner, for his part, emphasized the need to achieve more economic growth again in order to have higher tax revenues available. “Germany must prosper again. We need dynamic growth,” said the FDP politician.
New survey: FDP and Left at 4 percent
After months of internal coalition disputes over the state budget and aid for the economy, the finance minister has lost a lot of popularity, according to a recent opinion poll. When assessing the likeability and performance of the ten most important politicians on a scale of plus five to minus five, Lindner slipped to his personal low of minus 1.3 in the ZDF political barometer published on Friday. In the most recent survey at the beginning of February it came to minus 0.8.
The most popular politician is still Defense Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD) with an unchanged score of plus 1.6. In second place comes NRW Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst (CDU) with plus 0.7, in third place is his Bavarian counterpart and CSU leader Markus Söder with minus 0.3. Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) comes in eighth place with an unchanged minus 1.1. According to the survey, AfD co-leader Alice Weidel remains the most unpopular top politician with a score of minus 2.7.
In the so-called Sunday question, the Union lost one percentage point compared to the survey at the beginning of the month. If there were a federal election next Sunday, 30 percent would vote for the CDU or CSU. The Union would thus clearly be the strongest force. The SPD would receive an unchanged 15 percent compared to the survey at the beginning of February, the Greens would improve by one percentage point to 14 percent, and the AfD would receive an unchanged 19 percent.
The FDP and the Left would no longer get into the Bundestag with four percent each, while the Alliance Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW) would barely make it into the Bundestag with five percent. Of the politically realistic alliances, a coalition of the Union and the SPD as well as the Union and the Greens would be sufficient.
Only ten percent of those surveyed consider the economic situation in Germany to be good, the lowest number in 14 years. 40 percent rate it as bad, for 49 percent it is partly good and partly bad. 69 percent of those surveyed expect the economy to be in a downward trend at the moment, while only two percent see a positive development.
60 percent believe that the federal government should provide more financial support to the economy. If such support for the economy comes about, 62 percent say it should be counter-financed through savings elsewhere, 18 percent then advocate more debt and 13 percent support tax increases.
The Elections Research Group surveyed 1,294 randomly selected eligible voters by telephone and online for the political barometer from February 20th to 22nd. The possible error rate is two to three percent.
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