The budgetary spokespeople of the Bundestag parliamentary groups, Grüne (Greens) and Linke (The Left), Sebastian Schäfer and Dietmar Bartsch, sharply criticized the results of the cleaning session of the Budget Committee for the 2027 budget.
Schäfer said on Friday in Berlin that the coalition has set its priorities, but the result is “disappointing.” Despite lowering the sparkling wine tax, the coalition insists on “expensive and largely ineffective subsidies,” while environmentally harmful subsidies remain untouched. Furthermore, the Federal Government broke its promise to lower the electricity tax for everyone.
The coalition is shifting funds to achieve an investment ratio of ten percent, Schäfer continued. Only one-third of transport expenditures is actually reflected in the transport budget; the rest is held by Autobahn GmbH and in the individual plan for defense. Schäfer criticized that nearly 123 billion euros in new debt will be taken on solely in the core budget, combined with almost 88 billion euros in the special fund for the Bundeswehr. Tax revenues cover only 71 percent of the planned expenditures, which is unsustainable in the long term.
Bartsch added that the coalition will leave a “gigantic mountain of debt” and that higher burdens for citizens are to be expected. He complained that there are “far too few future investments” and that the country’s structural problems will be postponed into the future. Bartsch also criticized “a multitude of amateurish errors” in the budget and described the debt policy as “unprecedented.” He demanded a reform agenda and a major tax reform to stabilize the financial situation.
