EIt’s about a lot of money – for the federal and state governments. This explains why there was no quick breakdown of the costs associated with the various relief packages at the meeting of the prime ministers with Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) and members of the federal government.
But that doesn’t help citizens and entrepreneurs who want to know what to expect in the next few months and what costs they have to calculate themselves. The participants therefore do not have much time. But they should know that best themselves.
Scholz and Lindner should not give in
Scholz calculated publicly after the conversation: the federal government contributes between 240 and 250 billion euros out of a total of 295 billion euros. This is not enough for the heads of government of the countries. The Chancellor’s party friend, Lower Saxony’s Prime Minister Stephan Weil, who is in the middle of the hot phase of the state election campaign, coolly referred to the housing benefit costs, to the successor regulation for the 9-euro ticket, to the municipal hospitals, which cannot turn down the heating, to save energy costs.
North Rhine-Westphalia’s Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst from the CDU did not have to take any consideration. His verdict was correspondingly sharp: he criticized that the federal government had not shown any willingness to compromise on essential issues.
Meanwhile, Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner sees himself forced to have more loans approved by the Bundestag within twelve months than he could have imagined in his worst dreams: in addition to the almost 140 billion in the current federal budget, there is the second supplement for 2021, the Bundeswehr special fund and the Defense shield in the “energy war” with Moscow – all in all 500 billion euros.
The traffic light wants to comply with the debt rule again from next year. That’s why she’s bunkering credit authorizations. This in turn increases the desirability of the prime ministers. But there is no objective reason why Scholz and Lindner should give in: the federal states have less debt, they are making surpluses again and they also have higher tax revenues. Poor Bund. He’s just rich in debt.
