German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Saturday he was confident that tough negotiations with coalition partners to fix the country’s 2024 budget after a historic court ruling would eventually lead to an agreement.
Scholz made it clear that there would be no cuts to social security, stressing only that “It is a very difficult task.”
But I would like to take this opportunity to convey the confidence that we will succeed. And that we will succeed in a way that is important for the future of this country.
Earlier this week, Lindner, the finance minister, said a political agreement on the structure of next year’s budget was likely to be reached within days.
Scholz’s ruling alliance, which also includes the Green Party, is reeling from the constitutional court’s ruling. Current negotiations are centred on whether it is possible to suspend the debt brake next year as well, in order to fill the €17 billion budget gap, leaving spending on industrial projects, climate policy and social welfare in limbo.
Consequently, industrial companies are sounding the alarm over what they say is a great deal of uncertainty over how Germany plans to finance its transition to carbon neutrality, which is at the heart of the current government’s policy programme.
“The general mood is becoming increasingly negative across the industry,” Klaus Rosenfeld, chief executive of auto supplier Schaeffler, told German magazine Focus.
The German Chancellor, whose public approval rating fell to a record low in a recent poll by broadcaster ARD, said budget negotiations were not an “insurmountable task” but required a common understanding within the tripartite coalition.
