Budget 2025: Christian Lindner's austerity plans encounter resistance from the SPD

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Finance Minister Christian Lindner: Wants to curb the social budget

Photo: Ann-Marie Utz/dpa

For the 2025 budget, the federal government must once again fill a billion-dollar gap. According to estimates, the hole is up to 30 billion euros. Violent conflicts are already emerging in the traffic light coalition. 

After FDP Finance Minister Christian Lindner repeatedly called for changes to social spending, there was determined resistance from the SPD. »For us, cuts to the welfare state are out of the question. “Particularly in times of crisis, people trust the state and its social infrastructure,” said Tim Klüssendorf, spokesman for the “Parliamentary Left” in the SPD parliamentary group, to SPIEGEL. "The dismantling of social safety nets would attack social cohesion and endanger the support for our democracy in the long term."

Group colleague Erik von Malottki sees it similarly. »The cuts in the social sector proposed by Christian Lindner are unacceptable. Every fifth child in Germany lives in poverty. We cannot finally change this situation through cuts, and that is also why there will be massive resistance from the SPD to Lindner's plans," said the co-chair of the "Forum DL21", a left-wing group in the SPD, to SPIEGEL.

Finance Minister Lindner recently spoke out in favor of comprehensive social reforms in the “Zeit”. “The sharply increasing social spending, which no longer just prevents need but also redistributes it on a large scale, is in competition with all other tasks: climate protection, education, infrastructure, defense,” said Lindner. And he also explained: "We can fulfill all of our tasks if we maintain discipline in the state budget and make our social systems sustainable."

Von Malottki said he shared Lindner's desire for more investment in education. »There are already loss of work happening all over the country because parents can no longer send their children to care. We at the federal government must finally respond to this with significantly more investment. But the SPD definitely doesn't want to save money in the social sector.

"If politicians today are forced to offset important statutory benefits against necessary education expenses or urgent investments in infrastructure, the error in the system becomes apparent," said SPD finance politician Klüssendorf. There is an urgent need for a debate about reforming the debt rule and a fair tax policy. SPD leader Lars Klingbeil also recently called for a reform of the debt brake.

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