The German government's obstacle course to adopt the 2024 budget is coming to an end with the green light this Friday, February 2, from MPs who approved significant cuts in spending, including those sparking farmers' revolt.
The Bundestag, the lower house of parliament, voted, several weeks late on the initial schedule, this finance law which the government had to urgently rework after a call to order from constitutional judges and a political crisis within of Olaf Scholz's coalition.
It notably contains the gradual elimination by 2026 of a tax exemption for agricultural diesel.
This measure triggered a massive protest movement by German farmers who have increased their demonstrations for several weeks.
Like the rest of the profession in Europe, where the mobilization has spread, farmers also denounce the fluctuation of their income, foreign competition, the accumulation of new environmental standards.
Second chamber vote postponed
But the final setback in this budgetary journey of the cross: the second chamber of the federal parliament, the Bundesrat, representing the 16 Länder, postponed, probably until the end of March, its vote on the abolition of agricultural diesel, to mark its disagreement.
The president of the Farmers' Union (DBV), Joachim Rukwied, welcomed this postponement, hoping that it would make it possible to
“find solutions”
.
Social Democratic Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who governs with the ecologists and liberals, has had to resort to drastic cuts in public spending in order to resolve the budgetary crisis triggered by a decision by the Karlsruhe Constitutional Court in November.
The highest judicial body censored the use of special funds, depriving the government of 60 billion euros in credits, including 17 billion for the year 2024. The Court had estimated that the government had broken the rules by wanting to draw from these off-budget funds.
After tough negotiations, the tripartite coalition finally agreed to fill the financial hole by notably eliminating public subsidies, those for farmers, but also aid for the purchase of electric vehicles or support for the photovoltaic industry.
The government also increased the tax linked to CO2 emissions more than expected, while that on plane tickets from German airports will increase by a fifth from May.
A new headache looms to complete the 2025 budget with, according to the economic daily Handelsblatt, a financial hole estimated between 13 and more than 20 billion euros.