Savings are required in all German ministries

2024-01-29 09:04:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

According to reports in the German media, a new gap of several billions is opening in the budget of the coalition government in Berlin for the next year. German Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) will have to fill the gap of two-digit billions, according to the media. The newspaper "Handelsblatt" has published figures, referring to government circles in Berlin.

According to her, 13 billion euros are missing from the 2025 budget. "The budget gap will obviously be at the double-digit level," Handelsblatt quoted a government representative as saying. And the "Bild" newspaper had talked about 25 billion euros that the budget needs. A week ago, the person responsible for the budget in the parliamentary group of the CDU/CSU Union, Christian Haase, announced that we need a saving of about 36 billion euros for 2025. It is still not clear how much be the budget deficit for 2025, according to him.

Savings are required in all German ministries

Priorities must be set

After these announcements come the first reactions from politics. Torsten Herbst, the liberal politician for finance, of the FPD, a partner of the government coalition, has requested for 2025 savings in all sectors. "Each minister must now offer concrete savings, entire projects and tasks must be called into question," Herbst told Bild newspaper on Saturday. It is no longer enough to collect, the FPD requires "real priority setting". According to Herbst there should be two priorities, safety and well-being. "Security at home and abroad as well as support for the economy and the location of Germany."

The spokesperson of the FPD for budgetary issues, Otto Fricke, has also emphasized to the media that the Minister of Defense, Pistorius, should "help the Minister of Finance and say" where he will get the additional money. The Bundeswehr is facing major reform following the change in German defense policy and the 100 billion fund for the German military after the start of the war in Ukraine. And the liberal politician Herbst even proposed the removal of humanitarian aid to China and India. "Countries with space programs should definitely not receive development aid from Germany," he told "Bild"./ DW