SPD insists on leeway for German debt brake
Published: Wednesday, Jun 12th 2024, 11:50
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In the struggle between the German governing parties over the 2025 budget, the Social Democrats in the Bundestag are insisting on using the legal leeway for the debt brake.
There is a "broad consensus" that there must be no lack of necessary investment in the future, said Parliamentary Secretary Katja Mast in Berlin on Wednesday. The coalition must deal with the debt brake as it is written into the constitution.
According to the debt brake, the annual new debt of the German state may not exceed 0.35% of gross domestic product. The budget politicians in the SPD parliamentary group had already proposed removing security costs for the military and civil defense from the debt brake or suspending the debt brake. Mast emphasized that external and social security should not be played off against each other in the budget negotiations.
Despite opposing positions in the coalition on the central issue of financing the tasks in the coming year, Mast was optimistic that the federal cabinet would approve the budget as planned. They are working on it at full speed. The SPD politician pointed out that the budget will then be discussed in parliament for months as usual. Adoption is therefore planned for the end of November.
For the German federal budget 2025, the various departments had announced many extra requests that would exceed the debt brake. Following the disaster of the "traffic light" coalition (SPD, FDP, Greens) in the European elections, July 3 is now seen as the moment of truth for Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD). This is when the budget is to be approved by the cabinet, and then it could be decided whether the coalition will hold.
In the European elections, the Chancellor's party plummeted to 13.9%, the Greens fell to 11.9% and the FDP ended up with 5.2%. The "traffic light" therefore only achieved 31% overall. The opposition Christian Democrats (CDU/CSU, 30.0%) achieved this result almost single-handedly. The next general election is not due until next year, probably in September. Early elections would only be possible if Scholz were to face a vote of confidence and lose.
©Keystone/SDA
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