As of: March 2, 2024, 10:27 a.m
By: Victoria Krumbeck
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Press
Split
In order to save money, Finance Minister Lindner wants to persuade the ministries to spend less.
The departments should be informed at a meeting.
Berlin – Germany’s economy is weakening.
Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) wants to take action against this with savings in the ministries.
The state is missing several billion euros.
Cuts in the social sector have already been heavily discussed, especially since Germany increased its defense spending.
Now Lindner is said to have a new plan on how he can put pressure on the ministers.
Lindner's budget plan: Ministries are being pressured to save money
According to
Spiegel
information, Lindner wants to put strong pressure on the ministries.
There will be a meeting of state secretaries on Thursday (March 7th).
There, the new budget secretary in the Ministry of Finance, Wolf Reuter, will present the federal government's critical financial situation to the secretaries responsible for the budget.
At the same time, the ministries should be pressured to adopt stricter austerity measures.
Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) wants to force the other ministries to make savings.
© Britta Pedersen/dpa
The 2025 federal budget is expected to be missing 25 to 30 billion euros, as
Spiegel
writes.
The ongoing weak economy is now also having an impact on tax revenue.
According to an in-house tax estimate by the Federal Ministry of Finance, tax relief cannot be expected.
It was also said that the gap had to be closed through savings.
Ministries should save: Lindner wants to allocate money to departments
The austerity measures could be distributed equally among the coalition partners, so that the SPD, Greens and FDP would each have to raise a third of the amount.
Another option would be to make savings based on the size of the department.
Lindner also wants to impose a spending cap on the ministries, in which the Ministry of Finance allocates money to the departments.
Lindner's plan: Ministries remain in the dark - Scholz against social cuts
At the planned meeting on Thursday, the ministries will probably not find out how much money they will receive.
Lindner wants to make sure that the ministries do not find out how much the others receive, writes Der
Spiegel
.
Only later will they be informed of their budget in a letter.
However, Lindner's plan can only work if he has the support of Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD).
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However, she has already spoken out against cuts in social benefits.
On Monday (February 26th) he told the dpa news agency that raising the retirement age, restricting benefits in the event of illness and nursing care and reducing protection against dismissal were not an option for him.
“I rule out the possibility of a government led by me doing something like that,” explained Scholz.
(vk)