As of: March 17, 2024, 9:47 a.m
By: Fabian Hartmann
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The finance minister has to fill a billion-dollar hole in the federal budget.
To this end, he has presented the ministries with upper limits.
Is the next fight imminent?
Berlin – Negotiations on the federal budget for the coming year traditionally take place in March, and last week the traffic light coalition also began discussions on the budget for 2025. This year, however, they could be tricky.
After the ruling of the Federal Constitutional Court and the comparatively weak economy in the country, the federal government is faced with a difficult starting position for negotiations.
Lindner puts the red pencil on the 2025 budget: Finance Minister presents upper limits to ministries
In a letter that was available to the
ARD
capital studio, Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) called on his cabinet colleagues to save money.
In the letter, Lindner explains that in view of a double-digit billion dollar hole in the federal budget, “it will require a joint effort by the federal government to resolve the need for action in the federal budget,” reports the
Tagesschau
.
“There is a clear need for structural consolidation in the federal budget for the future financial years,” the Ministry of Finance warned the other ministries in a letter in February.
Some put the specific size of the deficit in the federal budget at 15 billion euros, others even at 25 to 30 billion euros.
Lindner is therefore basing this year's negotiations on a different procedure: Instead of negotiations on key budget figures, the Ministry of Finance has presented the other ministries with upper limits for their spending in the coming federal budget.
This is what Lindner's savings plan provides for the individual ministries in the 2025 federal budget
In this way, Lindner wants to prevent the ministries from making high demands again, which would then have to be negotiated down again.
How much exactly the individual ministries and ministers have to save according to the finance minister's budget plans as part of the 2025 federal budget can now be seen from information from the
Bild
newspaper.
Overall, the Federal Finance Minister envisages savings of around 25 billion euros compared to the previous year's federal budget.
With 5.2 billion euros less, the Ministry for Digital and Transport von Lindners has to make savings.
This means that the ministry of his party colleague Volker Wissing (FDP) is affected by the largest losses for the available budget for 2025.
But the Foreign Office, headed by Annalena Baerbock (Greens), will only have 5.35 billion euros available next year.
This means that the upper limit set by Lindner is 1.36 billion euros less than in 2024 (6.71 billion euros).
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The Federal Finance Minister's savings plans, on the other hand, see smaller losses in the available budget for the Ministry of the Interior led by Nancy Faeser (SPD) (-1.14 billion euros) and the Ministry of Development led by Svenja Schulze (SPD) (-0.94 billion Euro) or Robert Habeck's (Greens) Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection (-0.78 billion euros).
According to Lindner's savings plans, the Ministry of Health led by Karl Lauterbach (SPD) will have 16.12 instead of 16.71 billion euros available next year (-0.59 billion euros).
Lindner's red pencil for the 2025 budget: A few ministries should be given more financial leeway
But there are also ministries that, despite the austerity measures initiated by the Federal Finance Minister, will have more money available in 2025 than in 2024. These include the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs of Hubertus Heil (SPD), which has an increase of 2.82 billion euros the largest increase compared to the previous year's budget.
According to Lindner, the debt service responsible for interest payments and debt repayment will also receive 1.58 billion euros more in 2025.
Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) and Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) © IMAGO/Kira Hofmann
The Ministry of Building and Housing under Klara Geywitz (SPD) and the Ministry of Defense under Boris Pistorius (SPD) could have a slight increase and therefore at least a little more financial leeway next year.
According to Lindner's plans, Geywitz should receive 0.87 billion euros more, while Pistorius could expect a comparatively minimal increase of 50 million euros.
Announcement for the 2025 budget: Lindner calls on ministries to adhere to budget upper limits
Lindner demands that his cabinet colleagues adhere to the budget limits he has set in their financial planning.
The ministries now have until April 19th to report their expenditure lists to the Ministry of Finance for the 2025 budget.
“If the registrations do not correspond to the department-specific upper limits, they cannot be accepted,” explains Lindner in the relevant letter to his cabinet colleagues, according to the
Bild
newspaper.
And added: “This procedure has been agreed with the Federal Chancellor and the Vice Chancellor.”
Suspend the debt brake for 2025?
Ampel is toying with further loans
The SPD and the Greens also continue to flirt with the federal government taking out more loans.
To do this, the debt brake would have to be suspended again.
The German Federation of Trade Unions (DGB), other social associations and some economists are also in favor of this.
They are of the opinion that such an exception can be justified by the exceptional support from Ukraine and the resulting increased number of refugees.
The debt brake anchored in the Basic Law only provides for a very limited net borrowing, but can be suspended in the event of natural disasters or other exceptional emergencies.
(fh)