– Lindner: Budget gap still around five billion euros
Finance Minister Christian Lindner sees a financing gap of around five billion euros in the 2025 federal budget, according to recent assessments. However, there is still plenty of time to find a sustainable solution, the FDP chairman emphasized in a summer interview with the ZDF program “Berlin direkt”. By mid-month, he will consult with Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) and Vice-Chancellor Robert Habeck (Greens), after which the budget draft will be submitted to the Bundestag, where it is scheduled to be passed by the end of November.
Initially, the three top figures of the traffic light coalition had announced at the beginning of July that they had found a compromise on the budget. The goal was to plug a gap of around 30 billion euros. However, Lindner had already raised doubts about several projects at the time and had them checked legally and economically. The review revealed legal risks, particularly in the plan to use the remaining 4.9 billion euros of the promotional bank KfW for the gas price brakes elsewhere in the budget. “I want a budget within the framework of the constitution,” Lindner emphasized.
Lindner drew a red line for the upcoming negotiations on “tax increases for the working middle class”. It’s not about saving, he said, but about shifting funds for the right purposes.
The Finnance Minister, Christian Lindner, expressed concerns about potential legal risks in certain projects that aimed to use the remaining budget from KfW for gas price brakes, stating his commitment to a budget within the constitutional framework. Upon finding budgetary issues, Lindner decided to consult with Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Vice-Chancellor Robert Habeck to seek a solution.