The positions of the traffic light parties before the budget deliberations differ: Greens and SPD do not want to save so vehemently, but invest; the FDP demands the black zero without new taxes. The Liberals want to achieve this through savings in the social sector.
With a view to the upcoming decisions on the federal budget for 2023, politicians from the SPD and the Greens have warned against overly strict austerity measures. “As reasonable as political prioritization and spending efficiency are in this acute crisis situation, the state also urgently needs to continue to have strong financial power to act,” said SPD finance expert Achim Post t-online. The FDP, on the other hand, brought up cuts in the social sector.
“The financial tasks that lie ahead of us are not about black or white. It’s about a reasonable combination of political prioritization, the necessary crisis reaction strength and continued strong investments in the future, which is reasonable and appropriate to the challenge,” emphasized Post.
In addition, if energy prices continue to rise, “further relief is a requirement of economic reason and social responsibility,” emphasized the SPD politician. “The focus must then be on short-term and targeted relief for particularly affected population groups and companies, for which additional financial resources would then have to be mobilized this year.”
“We must not save ourselves in the crisis,” warned Greens budget expert Sven-Christian Kindler. “I would really like it to be different, but unfortunately in 2023 we will very likely still have to deal with the massive consequences of Russian aggression, fossil fuel inflation and the corona pandemic,” said Kindler, also on t-online.
With regard to the budget, the FDP insists on strict compliance with the debt brake and at the same time rules out tax increases. As a way out, the FDP budget politician Claudia Raffelhüschen recommended cuts in the social sector. “We have to start cutting back on the sprawling welfare state and bring it back to a healthy level,” she also said on t-online. In the case of health and care, for example, “the expenditure is enormously high”.
In addition, Raffelhüschen campaigned for contributions from citizens to reduce health expenditure. “In order not to have to cut back too much on state benefits, we could reward personal responsibility in the future and provide incentives to live healthier lives,” she said. You have to get away from a “fully comprehensive mentality”.
The federal budget for 2023 is to be decided by the cabinet on Friday after a long struggle in the traffic light coalition. After that, parliamentary deliberations on the budget draft by Finance Minister Christian Lindner will begin.
