The SPD, the Greens and the FDP want and have to save.

In their paper, with which they go into the coalition negotiations, they promise “to guarantee the necessary future investments within the framework of the constitutional debt brake”.

At the same time they are announcing further expenses, next year alone for pension insurance in the double-digit billions.

The financial planning of Finance Minister Olaf Scholz (SPD), who is to be elected Chancellor after the conclusion of the coalition negotiations, does not contain any reserves.

Manfred Schäfers

Business correspondent in Berlin.

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Therefore, the coalitionists cannot avoid an austerity package.

The negotiators admit this in their paper, which they published at the end of their exploratory talks.

The key phrase is: "We want to gain additional budgetary leeway by checking the budget for superfluous, ineffective and environmentally and climate-damaging subsidies and expenditures."

That sounds clear and reasonable.

Unfortunately, such a statement is not very reliable, as each party understands something different when in doubt.

If an expense item is obviously superfluous or ineffective, Scholz could have long since deleted it.

As finance minister, however, he did not think of initiating any major prank campaigns.

Rather, it has contributed to considerable additional burdens for the federal government in terms of social security, which are now becoming more and more visible.

In addition, the federal government has created many additional jobs in the past three and a half years - not least in the Federal Ministry of Finance itself, which used to be cautious on this point because it saw itself as a role model.

Corona changed the situation

In Scholz's earlier term in office, better than expected income provided new room for maneuver. So there was room for so many wishes. The budget politicians of the black-red coalition took the opportunity to get 10 million euros for a swimming pool in Hamburg, up to 30 million euros for green spaces in the Hanseatic city and 55 million euros for various cultural projects on the Alster. The SPD politician Johannes Kahrs, who came from there and who has since withdrawn from the Berlin stage, achieved this. In return, the CDU member Eckhardt Rehberg provided 6 million euros annually for a new space institute in Neustrelitz, 33.5 million euros for cultural monuments in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and a total of 25 million euros for Rostock as a model region.

The situation turned with the corona pandemic.

Tax revenues collapsed, and at the same time there were compelling new expenditures.

This could be agreed with each other because the debt brake did not apply in the particular crisis.

Because there was no longer an expenditure cap, almost anything could be financed.

And a finance minister who runs his party's candidate for chancellor is no longer just the government's chief treasurer.