Scholz weighs in on budget dispute with Lindner

Powerful words spoken on vacation can have a completely different effect. Then something must be very serious. Olaf Scholz Apparently, he is interested in stopping the heated debate between the SPD and FDP over the federal budget until he can get back to his desk in Berlin and discuss it with the ministers responsible.

He sent a double message. Scholz said the legal report classified the plan drawn up by the chancellery to provide loans to Deutsche Bahn and Autobahn as legal. “It worked,” Scholz told ZEIT Online. He came to a different conclusion than the federal finance minister. Christian Lindner (The Liberal Democratic Party) expressed serious doubts about its legitimacy.

Without mentioning Lindner by name, Scholz added with rare sharpness and clarity: “It remains a mystery how the vote that was actually clear in the legal report could be fundamentally misunderstood for a while.” Scholz was referring to the report of law professor Johannes Heilemann. This is more different from the one drawn up by the Ministry of Finance that Lindner usually refers to.

But Scholz’s brief budget statement also contained a message for his own party. He said the federal government would now discuss its next steps behind closed doors. Saskia Esken As SPD chairwoman, she is not part of the federal government, but she was most critical of Lindner’s quick classification of the report. She called his behavior indecent and said it went beyond her tolerance. It also didn’t sound like a confidential conversation.

Scholz’s stamp of approval was immediately heard in his own party on Tuesday afternoon. Also in Altenburg, Thuringia, Kevin Kunert was campaigning there on Tuesday evening. He said he was grateful for the chancellor’s words of power. As for the abolition of the debt brake, some Social Democrats have called for this in the current dispute with the government. Fructose polysaccharide Asked immediately, he didn’t want to talk. Instead, he talked about the necessary investment in the future.

On Wednesday morning, the SPD leader attempted Lars Klingbeil He expressed hope that the government could reach an amicable agreement, thus cooling the debate further. “My expectations are very clear: Olaf Scholz, Robert Habeck and Christian Lindner must assess this together. The point is together,” Klingbeil told the German Editors’ Network. “If we sit down and discuss together, we can avoid a situation where a public circus is staged again for days on end.” He believes that the financing gap can be closed. Klingbeil struck a much softer tone than his co-chairs had a week ago.

The FDP continues to defend its progress in classifying the report, but the FDP is now also speaking in a calmer tone. “Our language should become calmer,” said Christian Dürr, leader of the parliamentary group “Table Media”. The federal government still has one week to finally agree on the draft budget and submit it to the Bundestag.