An 18-page paper by Finance Minister Christian Lindner (Free Democratic Party) outlining an ostensible neoliberal path to more economic growth in Germany has provoked angry reactions by the two other coalition partners, the Social Democrats and the Greens. Media leaks on the paper indicate that Lindner is committed to zero budget increases (“debt brake”) and proposes to fund stimulus measures by cuts in the existing fiscal budget. Since the labor, social and climate budgets are Lindner’s main target, strong and public frictions have emerged between the coalition partners—one cannot even rule out that, if a 2025 budget cannot be agreed upon, the government could collapse.
Lindner particularly criticizes a “German special path” in climate policy, advocating instead a “European climate policy” with a lower rate of introduction of measures than the current plan: “It does not help climate protection if Germany, as a supposed global pioneer, tries to make its economy climate-neutral as quickly as possible, with consequent, avoidable economic damage and political upheaval.”
