Scholz under pressure: Union calls for withdrawal of the supplementary budget!

Scholz under pressure: Union calls for withdrawal of the supplementary budget!

Berlin is upside down! The Union has made a dramatic call on Chancellor Olaf Scholz's minority government to immediately withdraw the planned supplementary budget for this year. Union budget keeper Christian Haase left no doubt in the Bundestag: “Withdraw this proposal!” A clear blow to the new Finance Minister Jörg Kukies (SPD), who himself admitted that the draft was not needed and that it was calculated unconstitutionally.

But Kukies remains calm! In a statement, he emphasized that the federal government does not need any budget freezes even without additional loans. “The federal government pays its bills,” he assured and reassured citizens that child benefit, Bafög and citizen’s benefit will continue to arrive on time. The question remains: Why then this supplementary budget?

Borrowing in limbo

The supplementary budget was originally intended to exploit the scope for massive borrowing. The additional billions borrowed would have been intended to conserve the federal government's reserves this year and to have more money available next year. But after the break of the traffic light coalition, the probability of this succeeding has fallen sharply. Nevertheless, the members of the Bundestag did not completely rule out the option of subsequent borrowing and transferred the supplementary budget back to the responsible committee. A political tug of war that is putting Germany's financial policy on the rocks!