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Finance Minister Christian Lindner under pressure: Ministers are demanding more money for the 2025 budget
Christian Lindner shows his authority in the traffic light coalition: Ministers are faced with demands for savings worth billions of euros. Disobedience and tensions in the cabinet. What's next? Read more.
Finance Minister Christian Lindner under pressure: Ministers are demanding more money for the 2025 budget
The upcoming deadline for the budget tasks in the traffic light coalition will spark discussions again starting this Thursday. At the beginning of March, Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) instructed ministers to spend less money in the 2025 budget than in the current year. However, it appears that Teacher Lindner will blame some ministers as several, if not all, will report a need for additional funding.
In his letter dated March 7, Lindner pointed out that the financial resources for 2025 decided in July 2023, together with new measures, reach the spending limit. This unusual approach revealed that the federal government is not planning the budget based on older figures. Normally, the finance ministers would present updated key figures for each department in March. This time Lindner is pausing this process because there are no additional funds available and savings are unavoidable.
Ministers now have the choice of following the austerity guidelines or objecting. Defense Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD) was the first to take action against Lindner's austerity plans. He argued for a significantly higher budget requirement, especially in view of the current security policy situation in Europe. Similarly, other departments could base their arguments on security policy aspects in order to justify higher budget estimates. The discussion about additional spending and austerity measures reflects the challenging budget situation in 2025.
Despite potential borrowing, a balanced budget is a priority objective. However, the possible flexibility of the debt brake would not be sufficient to meet all lists of needs. In addition, it is being discussed whether subsidies and tax breaks should be eliminated in order to free up additional funds. The discussion about a debt brake reform and the ideal approach to adopting the 2025 budget show the complexity of budget planning in a challenging political environment.