German opposition slams government’s budget plans

Members of Germany’s opposition on Tuesday ripped into the government’s plans for the 2025 budget, which are set to be at the heart of parliamentary debate this week.

Lawmakers are to vote on this year’s budget in the coming days, after failure to agree on how to plug a multibillion-euro hole brought down the previous administration of chancellor Olaf Scholz in November last year.

Subsequent early elections in February meant this year’s budget had to wait until a new government was in place, with Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s conservative-led alliance taking the helm in May.

Thanks to the delay, the 2025 budget is only set to be in effect for three months if lawmakers approve the plans at the end of the week – which has made it comparatively easy for Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil to come up with a draft.

Regardless, opposition lawmakers accused the government of relying too heavily on borrowing after the coalition moved to exempt spending on defence and infrastructure from the country’s strict debt rules.

According to Michael Espendiller, chief budgetary officer for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), the government is “unabashedly pursuing the most extreme level of debt this country has ever seen.”

His party, the biggest opposition force, advocates complying with Germany’s debt rules known as the debt brake, and has proposed cutting funding for climate measures, EU contributions and arms deliveries to Ukraine instead.

Ines Schwerdtner from The Left party, meanwhile, said the money was not reaching those needing it the most.

“Never before has a government spent so much money, and never before has so little reached the people,” the far-left party leader said.

Government spending is set to total €502.55 billion ($593.9 billion) this year, according to the draft budget, slightly up on last year.

This includes core debt of almost €82 billion, alongside additional borrowing for investment in infrastructure and defence, which is likely to bring total government debt up to over €140 billion.

Despite the criticism, the real trouble awaits when agreement has to be made on the budgets for the coming years, with lawmakers set to debate the 2026 budget in the coming weeks.

For 2027, the German government needs to find a way to plug a €34-billion hole.