Dhe budget crisis dragged on for four weeks – and with each passing day it turned into a coalition crisis. Three people had to save the traffic light. For many meetings, many hours, many evenings, Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD), Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) and FDP leader Christian Lindner (FDP) brooded over the question of how they should plug the holes in the budget caused by the Federal Constitutional Court's ruling caused exactly four weeks ago.
In mid-November, the Federal Constitutional Court not only rejected the redirection of 60 billion euros to the climate and transformation fund, but also strengthened the budget principle of annuality. When the audience, already tired, turned away from the endless struggle, the Eureka came from the Chancellery. What the solution looks like and what questions are open – an overview.
Emergency or no emergency?
The FDP has resisted resorting to the emergency clause in the Basic Law in 2024. It would be the fifth time that the debt brake has been relaxed in this way. The SPD and the Greens have pushed for this in order to gain spending flexibility. That was the core of the coalition conflict – and it has still not been resolved. The Chancellor reports that an emergency situation will be declared in favor of reconstruction after the floods on the Ahr. This involves 2.7 billion euros. It is questionable whether this is compatible with the ruling from Karlsruhe. The judges determined: The longer an emergency occurred, the better the reasons for its continued existence must be justified and the greater the financial burden must be. Finance Minister Lindner has his doubts. The amount does not endanger the statics of the federal budget, he said in the Chancellery. The Union has been threatening a new lawsuit in Karlsruhe for some time. Therefore, the traffic light wants to clarify with the largest opposition party whether the small emergency is a viable option. It also remains open to suspending the debt brake again if the situation in Ukraine worsens. But that's a given. The Basic Law explicitly provides for the possibility of reacting to an emergency.
The 17 billion hole
The finance minister outlined the task early on: 17 billion euros were missing from the core budget. As Scholz reported, this was “earned”. Subsidies that are harmful to the climate would be abolished, spending by individual departments would be reduced and federal subsidies would be reduced. As Lindner added, 1.5 billion euros should be saved in the social budget by increasing the “accuracy” in placing Ukrainians into the labor market. The plastic levy that the federal government pays from its budget to the EU will also be collected from the “distributors” of the plastic in the future. That would reduce the budget by 1.4 billion euros. In total, the traffic light wants to collect 3 billion euros in subsidies in order to reduce the electricity tax by this amount. Other deleted items include agricultural diesel and exemptions from motor vehicle tax for agriculture and forestry. According to reports, the 5.5 billion euros to curb electricity network fees, which should flow from the economic stabilization fund, will also be eliminated. The verdict pulled the plug on him. The big four electricity network operators announced that fees would rise next year from 3.12 cents per kilowatt hour to 6.43 cents. The traffic light has not provided a list of where what will be deleted, so details are still open. There are no statements on the planned total expenditure and the new net borrowing.
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