In the debate about the budget, Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) openly warned the SPD and its chairman Lars Klingbeil against breaking up the coalition. “For higher taxes and the abolition of the debt brake, he would have to seek a majority beyond the FDP,” Lindner told “Bild”.
The SPD has signed a coalition agreement in which tax increases and a weakening of the debt brake are ruled out. With his recent statements, Klingbeil is “publicly questioning the coalition agreement, although he knows that these guard rails are immutable for us.”
The FDP politician’s criticism of the coalition partner SPD was a response to Klingbeil’s comments in a Reuters TV interview. Klingbeil had insisted that the budget gap for the 2025 budget could not be plugged solely through savings.
“What is not acceptable is simply cutting 30 or 40 billion from the federal budget,” the SPD chairman said on Thursday. “That would ruin something in this country. And that is a clear message to Christian Lindner that we Social Democrats will not go down this path and that other solutions must be found.” He mentioned either increasing revenues or taking a different approach to the debt brake as options.
Nevertheless, Klingbeil was confident that the Federal Cabinet would agree on the draft budget on July 3, as promised.
Lindner is planning relief for income tax payers in the double-digit billions and thus initiated the next internal coalition debate in the traffic light government on Wednesday.
According to the Federal Finance Minister’s plans, the basic tax allowance is to be increased and income tax rates adjusted in several steps by 2026. Lindner wants to use this to combat the so-called bracket creep. The SPD and the Greens reject the plans.
