Status: 28.11.2023, 14:10 PM
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"I want Germany to be at the forefront": Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz. © Michael Kappeler/dpa
The Chancellor admits a budgetary problem. He does not present a solution - but announces the end of the energy price brakes. The opposition leader shouts at him: "You can't do it."
Berlin - The traffic light coalition has everything under control even in the budget crisis, that is the message that Chancellor Olaf Scholz is sending in his government statement in the Bundestag. However, the SPD politician did not present political decisions and ways out of the billion-dollar hole.
There is still open and fierce debate about what the government can still spend money on in the coming year. In any case, according to Scholz, the energy price brakes will no longer apply. After the speech, the opposition denied his suitability to be Chancellor.
Not once did the Chancellor regret the debt manoeuvre, which was declared unconstitutional - or even apologize for it, criticized CDU leader Friedrich Merz in the Bundestag. Instead, the government looks on helplessly as its house of cards has collapsed. AfD leader Alice Weidel demanded personnel consequences. "In this situation, the citizens did not wait for your government statement, Mr. Scholz, but for your resignation," she said.
Opposition had demanded Scholz speech
Actually, Scholz follows the principle that a politician should only make a public statement if he has something to say. But the CDU/CSU and the Left had urged him to comment on the ruling, which caught the government off guard in mid-November.
Now an attempt at reassurance in typical Scholz's way - already the second after the video message published last Friday. The Chancellor assured the citizens of reliable state benefits. "The ruling of the Federal Constitutional Court does not change anything in your everyday life here and now - regardless of whether you receive child benefit or Bafög, a pension or housing benefit," he promised. The government does not leave anyone alone with the current concentrated challenges.
Merz criticizes Scholz as a technocrat
The Chancellor then described the technical consequences of the Karlsruhe budget ruling: the supplementary budget with the suspension of the debt brake, with which the government wants to repair the budget for the current year.
The CDU federal chairman and CDU/CSU parliamentary group chairman Friedrich Merz during his speech in the Bundestag. © Melissa Erichsen/dpa
For opposition leader Merz, this was too much budget arithmetic - and too little political direction. "You are a plumber of power. They lack any idea of how this country should develop in the coming years," he accused Scholz. Compared to previous SPD chancellors, one has to say: "They can't do it." The shoes of a Federal Chancellor are "at least two shoe sizes too big" for him.
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"That's what I stand for as Chancellor"
The Chancellor, on the other hand, personally vouched for not abandoning major modernization projects. "I want Germany to be at the forefront," he said. It is about jobs, a competitive economy, a good life for future generations. With these premises, the budget for the coming year will now be discussed "with the necessary calm and in responsibility for our country". "Citizens can rely on that. That is what I stand for as Chancellor," Scholz said.
At the same time, however, the Chancellor prepared the citizens for austerity decisions. The Bundestag has postponed the conclusion of the budget deliberations. "This gives us time to explore existing room for manoeuvre in the budget, to set priorities and, of course, to limit spending," he said. The state's energy price brakes will no longer be necessary in the coming year due to the lower prices. Scholz did not say where savings could still be made.
To this end, the CDU/CSU has made proposals: Cuts could be made in the citizens' allowance, the heating law and the basic child benefit. Green parliamentary group leader Katharina Dröge sharply criticized this. With Merz, she lacks seriousness and to a certain extent also decency. "I find it really shabby that the very first proposal came from you, of all people, to cut back on the fight against child poverty," she said.
Coalition on the verge of a major effort
Whether the budget for the coming year can be decided before New Year's Eve is written in the stars. It is not only necessary to decide which projects will still be financed from the Climate and Transformation Fund. The traffic light coalition must also save up to 20 billion euros in the regular budget. Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) has already pointed out to his traffic light colleagues "considerable efforts". "We will have to have intensive discussions, which will not always be easy," he wrote to the coalition factions.
In the Bundestag, clear differences were also evident within the traffic light. SPD parliamentary group leader Rolf Mützenich questioned the debt brake enshrined in the Basic Law. "We have to ask ourselves whether it is appropriate in the face of the challenges of this time," he said. "We need fundamental corrections to the design of the debt brake." The FDP, on the other hand, insists that the debt brake will not be touched.
Merz: Fate of the debt brake will not be decided by prime ministers
Merz assured that the CDU/CSU would also stick to the debt brake. Recently, several CDU state premiers had criticized the regulation in its current form. "The decisions are made here in the German Bundestag and not in the city hall of Berlin," Merz said, alluding to statements by the capital's governing mayor, Kai Wegner (CDU). Dpa