Berlin (Reuters) – After the dates for the vote of confidence and new elections have been clarified, the SPD and the opposition Union are wrestling with which projects should still be implemented.
The SPD parliamentary group would definitely like to get the Germany ticket, the mitigation of cold progression and the increase in child benefit through the Bundestag, said the parliamentary managing director of the SPD parliamentary group, Katja Mast, on Wednesday in Berlin. So far, the Union has only agreed on strengthening the Federal Constitutional Court and extending telephone monitoring in the event of break-ins. CDU/CSU parliamentary group leader Friedrich Merz curbed expectations and only referred to telephone surveillance. “To be honest, I don’t see much more at the moment,” said the Union candidate for chancellor at the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” economic forum. “We are not the reserve wheel for the coalition that no longer exists.”
After the traffic light was broken, the SPD and the Greens are in the minority government. Negotiations are underway with the FDP and the Union as to how the Bundestag should continue to work in the coming weeks until the vote of confidence and the likely subsequent dissolution. Merz pointed out that the SPD and the Greens no longer had a majority to even put issues on the agenda. The SPD politician Mast countered by pointing out that majorities could be found sometimes with the Union and sometimes with the FDP.
“A decision must be made on the Germany ticket this year,” she said. 13 million citizens benefited from the Germany Ticket. “The Union then has to show its colors whether it wants this Germany ticket to become so disproportionately expensive on January 1st that it is no longer attractive. Or whether it de facto wants the Germany ticket to be abolished. ” Bavaria’s Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) had also questioned the shared financing of the Germany ticket by the federal and state governments.
Mast emphasized that these measures could be implemented even without passing the 2025 budget. As a legislator, the Bundestag can make resolutions that the finance minister then has to implement financially, said the SPD politician. She pointed out that the SPD and the Greens did not necessarily need the approval of the opposition Union for decisions. The adoption of the package for cold progression and child benefit increases is also possible with the FDP. Despite the break in the traffic light government, FDP leader Christian Lindner emphasized that he himself had set up this project and that the Liberals could vote for it.
CDU General Secretary Carsten Linnemann also pointed out that there was no time pressure. The cold progression could also be mitigated retrospectively if there was a new government.
Regarding the internal party debate about the SPD candidate for chancellor, Mast said that it had been decided and that Chancellor Olaf Scholz was the renewed candidate. CDU leader Merz also assumes that the SPD will go into the election campaign with Scholz again. But Scholz will have a difficult time because he is going into the election as Chancellor without a majority. The Union is currently far ahead of the SPD in surveys.
(Report by Andreas Rinke; edited by Kerstin Dörr; If you have any questions, please contact our editorial team at berlin.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for politics and economics) or frankfurt.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for companies and markets).)
