The Bundestag is haggling over the final details of the budget. But can the green transformation of the economy still succeed with this austerity budget?
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Energy-efficient buildings, the transport sector and marine protection: At the end of the budget impasse, climate and environmental protection in particular could suffer and emissions could rise. © Oliver Berg/dpa
The Federal Constitutional Court’s ruling on the federal government’s budget was 64 days ago. A lot of time – and yet the country is still in an extreme situation, many details of the 2024 federal budget are unclear. Only this Wednesday became known aboutthat the traffic light coalition does not want to finance the flood relief for the Ahr Valley through an emergency, as planned. And the farmers’ protests have once again thrown the budget plans into disarray. Since the subsidies for agricultural diesel do not expire as planned, the federal government is left with higher costs. The money must be saved elsewhere. So many changes are about to pop up that the first budget experts are already complaining publicly. “Nobody can see through it anymore. The whole process is a farce,” said the Union faction’s chief budget officer, Christian Haase.