The leaders of the tripartite led by Olaf Scholz have reached an agreement on how to compensate for the 17 billion euros that were missing in the budgets for 2024 via scissors. “We have to get by with less money and that means cuts and review of priorities,” explained the chancellor in a joint appearance with the Minister of Economy, Robert Habeck, representing the Greens, and the head of Finance, the liberal Christian Lidner.
The details of the agreement are to be determined, but there is consensus that the debt will not increase or there will be an emergency declaration to cover the hole revealed with a ruling by the Constitutional Court contrary to the reallocation of funds and non-compliance with the annuity principle. The liberals of the FPD thus impose their criteria against the position of social democrats and greens, who are more lax in terms of fiscal consolidation. What Lidner has given up is the rest to social spending, although his party calls for a more efficient welfare state and greater integration of refugees into the labor market, which would allow, in his opinion, savings in benefits of up to 1.5 billion euros. The Ukraine game will not be touched either.
“We will support Ukraine from the regular budget as we have planned and, above all, for as long as necessary. This includes 8,000 euros for weapons supplies, financial aid for the Ukrainian budget and probably more than 6,000 billion euros to support Ukrainian refugees in Germany,” the chancellor announced. Should the situation worsen as a result of the war, the situation on the front deteriorate, contributions from other countries be reduced or the threat to Germany and Europe increases, “we will have to react,” Scholz said, leaving open the possibility of an increase. budgetary.
The cuts will be in investments and subsidies in energy transformation and climate. Spending on the Climate Transformation Fund will be reduced by 12 billion euros next year and by around 45 billion euros in the financial planning period until 2027.
At the same time, the Government will increase the price of CO2 for refueling and heating with fossil fuels. The old price path of the grand coalition will return
The plan consists of canceling a subsidy of 1,000 million euros for electricity grid rates. The reduction in climate-damaging subsidies will be three billion euros, according to Lindner.
According to Habeck, he announced that the subsidy for the purchase of electric cars will also expire before 2025, which was expected. In addition there will also be cuts in the solar industry. “That hurts me,” said the Greens leader.
With the basic agreement of the coalition leaders, the budgets for 2014 can begin to be debated before the Christmas break in the Budget Committee of the Bundestag, although the general debate will not be due to calendar reasons until next year.