“It was with relief that I accepted…”: What’s behind Habeck and Lindner’s penal enmity

The tone of the letter that Economics Minister Robert Habeck wrote to his “colleague” on Valentine’s Day is by no means affectionate. “We ask you not to make any further public or internal preliminary decisions that prioritize further spending,” wrote the Vice Chancellor to Finance Minister Christian Lindner on behalf of all Green-led ministries.

In it, Habeck committed himself to the debt brake, but warned the FDP chairman that other agreed political projects should not be dropped in the next federal budget.

And the Economics Minister made a few suggestions to his colleague directly on how he could solve the misery: “We propose that we discuss how we can improve income, promote the reduction of environmentally harmful subsidies and identify programs that can be replaced by regulatory law.”

I was relieved to learn that the ministries led by the Greens are not questioning the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany.

Christian Lindner (FDP) in a letter to his fellow minister Robert Habeck (Greens)

It’s a remarkable process. Although the honeymoon of the traffic light coalition is long over and every coalition argued about money, the type of communication shows the broken relationship between the two ministers and their parties. Because Lindner’s answer a day later leaves little room for negotiation.

“I was relieved that the ministries led by the Greens are not questioning the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany,” Lindner begins his reply letter smugly, referring to the debt brake. This is higher than projects from the coalition agreement.

With reference to the Basic Law, Lindner also reports that his ministry has a right to prioritize budget consultations and rejects tax increases. “I don’t want to take up this suggestion,” he writes. In view of the crisis, this is economically wrong.

It looks a bit like kindergarten, but behind the exchange of letters, which is available to the Tagesspiegel, there is a tough political debate. The federal budget for 2024, which is currently in the preparation process for the individual ministries, will probably come at the expense of some traffic light projects.

In view of the weakening economy, the promised return to the debt brake without financial policy tricks will only be possible through cuts.

The Greens see their prestige projects particularly affected

But from the point of view of the Greens, the FDP finance minister does this primarily for prestige projects of the Greens. The funds for basic child security could be missing, as well as money for integration aids or the climate and transformation fund, from which the energy transition is to be financed.

Instead, Lindner is prioritizing liberal pet projects with the share pension, for which he has planned ten billion euros, and with the sales tax reduction for the catering trade.

However, the discussion began with the demand of the new Defense Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD), who demanded ten billion euros more for the Bundeswehr in view of arms deliveries to Ukraine. According to Pistorius, Chancellor Olaf Scholz and party leader Lars Klingbeil support a significantly higher NATO target for defense spending.

But there are also other voices in the SPD: Foreign politician Ralf Stegner advocates the same increases in funds for diplomacy and development cooperation as for defense: “We decided on the special fund for the Bundeswehr, that was also necessary,” he told the Tagesspiegel: “Furthermore, there can be no decoupling of expenditure for the Bundeswehr from that for diplomacy and development cooperation.”

The budget must be adjusted to the new situation. “But this cannot be done by predetermining individual ministers,” said Stegner, referring to Lindner.

In the coalition agreement, the traffic light parties had agreed to increase spending on diplomacy and development policy by the same amount as the defense budget increased. “Expenditure on crisis prevention, humanitarian aid, AKBP (foreign cultural and educational policy, ed.) and development cooperation should continue to increase on a one-to-one basis like defense spending,” it says.

When asked, the Development Ministry stated that in view of the diverse global challenges such as climate change, the effects of the Ukraine war and the consequences of the earthquake in Turkey and Syria, “adequate financing of our work” is necessary.

“The ability to act in terms of development policy is just as much a part of a comprehensive understanding of security and the perception of German interests and international responsibility as is adequate equipment for the Bundeswehr,” said a spokesman. The Foreign Office also said that the needs would continue to increase.

Overall, the financial wishes of the federal ministries amount to an additional 70 billion euros, according to information from the “Handelsblatt”. It is unclear how the holes will now be plugged.

“I take the liberty of informing the Chancellor and my colleagues about our exchange,” writes Lindner at the end of his letter to Habeck. On March 15, the cabinet actually wants to decide on the key figures of the budget. Actually.

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