The draft budget for 2025, which German parliamentarians will now examine, is 3,431 pages long. [Dostoyevsky’s War and Peace, a book often cited for its length, is under 700 pages—ed.] The budget pretends to show how the government intends to make ends meet, at least for this year. Federal Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil (Social Democrat) is more than doubling the debt: he wants to borrow €81.8 billion this year and €89.3 billion next year—with expenditures of €503 billion in 2025.
“This country has been cut to the bone in many places,” said Klingbeil when presenting his budget plans just over a week ago. What good is a black zero if the schools in the country are rotting away, he said, emphasizing that the “diggers are now rolling” and that “investments are finally being made.” Klingbeil announced “record investments” of €115 billion.
Sounds good, although he said it mainly to calm critics, particularly among Klingbeil’s own Social Democrats. The truth, however, is that Klingbeil plans deep cuts in all budgets of the government at the same time, except for defense. There, the budget is to increase to more than €150 billion by 2029. It would be astonishing, if that were not to provoke mass protests.
