Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) sees little scope in the federal budget for the basic child security system demanded by the Greens. “A lot has already happened for families with children,” said Lindner of “Bild am Sonntag”. More is “always desirable, but not always possible”.
“Child benefit has been increased to 250 euros, higher than it has been since 1996,” said Lindner. The Federal Government provides a total of seven billion euros more per year for families and children. “The essentials for the basic child security is done financially.”
He sees other approaches to combating child poverty, said the FDP chairman: “Child poverty is often due to the parents’ unemployment. That’s why language support and integration of parents into the job market are crucial in order to improve the children’s chances.
Federal Family Minister Lisa Paus (Greens) is vehemently demanding the introduction of basic child security and estimates the costs at twelve billion euros per year.
Income of more than one trillion euros
As priorities for the 2024 budget, instead of basic child security, Lindner named “the renewal of the infrastructure of all modes of transport, digitization of the state, upgrading of the Bundeswehr, strengthening education and research, modernization of trade, medium-sized companies and industry”. Other projects should be marked as ‘desirable but currently not feasible’.
For 2024, the finance minister expects record revenues for the state. “The state as a whole is expected to take more than one trillion euros for the first time in the coming year,” said Lindner of the “BamS”. Nevertheless, the money is not enough to finance the statutory obligations of the federal government, Lindner told the newspaper. “There is currently no question of additional expenditure.”
Lindner will no longer present any cornerstones for the budget this year. “I warn anyone looking for easy fixes like raising taxes. That would be economically wrong. This government must find the strength to save.” The so-called key figures are usually presented before the final government draft for the budget.
Actually, Lindner should have presented these plans at the beginning of March. However, he postponed the appointment because the ministries could not yet agree. According to the previous plan, the final government draft is to be approved by the cabinet on June 21 after the May tax estimate. After that, it’s the turn of the Bundestag, which wants to decide on the budget at the beginning of December. (AFP, dpa)
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