The coalition still has a lot of work ahead of it in its difficult deliberations on the 2025 federal budget, German Finance Minister Christian Lindner has said.
"We have not yet reached the landing zone," the minister told Saturday's edition of the Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung newspaper. It is "not just about a draft budget for next year ... but also about a fundamental turnaround in [Germany's] economy," Lindner stressed.
"Redistributing state money and subsidies do not create added value," added Lindner, a fiscal conservative who holds to a tougher line than his coalition partners.
In addition, the state must become more capable of acting in its core tasks. "In this respect, the restriction offers the opportunity to tackle the really important projects in education, digitalization, infrastructure and security more intensively," emphasized Lindner.
He does not want to make the success of the negotiations dependent on individual measures, but on the "level of ambition overall."
The three-party German coalition of Lindner's pro-business Free Democrats (FDP), Chancellor Olaf Scholz's Social Democrats (SPD) and the Greens in fact planned to present a draft budget on July 3, but Lindner had already indicated that the draft could be presented later.
The German finance minister is constantly negotiating the budget with Scholz and Economy Minister Robert Habeck of the Greens, Lindner said.
SPD leader Saskia Esken had warned Lindner of an overly rigid austerity programme and, in this context, of a "historic mistake."
Lindner rejected this once again. He pointed out in the newspaper that social benefits had been expanded since 2022. However, the country lacked economic growth and could not continue as it had done over the past 10 years.
"Mrs Esken must also realize that prosperity must first be generated before it can be distributed," the finance minister said.