The federal government is in a casino mood

Robert Habeck is needed in Berlin. Olaf Scholz made that clear to him – hence no trip to Dubai. The traffic light has to talk about the budget. That would have also been possible on Friday, when the Bundestag debated it – but as we know, Scholz himself was in Dubai.

The anecdote shows how serious the federal government is about the Federal Constitutional Court’s ruling, the supplementary budget and the debt brake. There is a mentality like that in a casino after bankruptcy. You take out a mortgage on your own property in the belief that you will win the money in the next round of roulette. At some point, mass migration and energy transition will be worth it.

Citizens’ money is not up for grabs – and not just since recent days. The SPD cannot give up on it, as it is one of the few party projects with which it can attract votes. The Greens don’t want to let go of their climate money. And the FDP claims that refraining from tax increases and adhering to the debt brake are “guardrails” for government participation. So shouldn’t she finally have to draw conclusions now at the latest?

But why should she do that: None of the coalition parties are drawing conclusions. The new household is put together just as dubiously as the last. The traffic light will explain the country’s special need in the next few days. Given the many problems Germany is facing, “everyone” would then have to contribute to resolving the national crisis. Apart from those who are responsible for them, of course.

The Greens are already calling for the “climate-damaging subsidies” to be eliminated. “These are subsidies that primarily benefit people with high incomes and that encourage behavior that is harmful to the climate,” summarizes the budget spokesman for the Green Party parliamentary group, Sven-Christian Kindler. This includes the famous “diesel privilege” or the “company car privilege”. The series could be continued.

In the SPD, meanwhile, people are pushing forward with two social democratic dream projects: increasing the inheritance tax and reintroducing the wealth tax. General Secretary Kevin Kühnert said on Saturday: “The SPD is fighting to ensure that it is not an austerity budget, that the poorest are not the ones who suffer.” Employees with a normal full-time job in Germany pay around 20 percent income tax, while heirs to large companies only pay an average of 2. 8 percent inheritance tax, he told the Funke Media Group. At the end of the week he announced a debate on inheritance and gift taxes.

Crisis always means opportunity. It suits the Greens and the Reds in order to eliminate “social injustices”, which means taking even more away from as many people as possible in order to promote transformation projects and thus cobble other people’s money to their own clientele. As in the last few months, the Yellows will first watch this with grumbling, then rehearse the uprising – and finally agree in the Bundestag.

Because Lindner sees a great responsibility for Germany. Ultimately, according to the finance minister, there would be a grand coalition without the FDP. “And the last grand coalition left us with the many problems with migration, planned economy climate protection, and neglect of the Bundeswehr. “I don’t think that’s a better situation for the country,” said the FDP leader. So: It’s better to rule badly than have others rule.

The question remains: What could make a black-red coalition even worse than the real one? This is of course purely hypothetical. But basically Lindner is announcing that he remains open to blackmail. Only the SPD and CDU/CSU have the options to form a government, not the FDP, because – like the CDU/CSU – it excludes the only possible variant that would make an alternative coalition possible. And as long as there is no alternative for the FDP, casino politics with no alternative will follow. After the visit to the traffic light casino, not only the country, but also his party is likely to go bankrupt.