Actually, the parameters for the 2024 budget should be decided on Wednesday in the cabinet. However, Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) cancelled the appointment because he could not reach an agreement with his colleagues. The ministers had registered additional requests of around 70 billion euros, for which the finance minister sees no room for manoeuvre.

Since then, the traffic light parties have been accusing each other of setting wrong priorities and making excessive demands. This is about the matter; the personal circumstances of the FDP ministers with their traffic light colleagues are absolutely intact, one hears from the FDP-led ministries. But when it comes to money, very different views meet, especially between the Greens and the Liberals.

What is Lindner's point of view?

Lindner says Germany has a "massive spending problem" and there is a structural deficit due to the corona pandemic and energy crisis. He wants to comply with the debt brake and at the same time refrain from tax increases. Lindner does not yet agree with several ministries on what contribution they must make to compliance with the debt brake, i.e. which of their demands they are prepared to waive. He himself cannot afford to back down. The FDP chairman has to go on the offensive after his party performed miserably in five state elections in a row. The FDP wants to be taken seriously – and that it is doing everything for it, the public should see calmly. (FHAU.)

What does the turnaround in interest rates mean for the federal budget?

For a long time, the federal government's interest expenditure was a politically particularly pleasant budget item: it fell from year to year – and thus constantly gave the government additional leeway for other expenditures. But that's over: In the budget for 2023, debt service accounts for almost 40 billion euros. This is ten times as much as in 2021 and at the same time almost twice as much as the entire budget for education and research. Even in 2013, shortly after the financial crisis, the German government had to spend "only" 31.3 billion euros on interest. Since then, two favourable factors have always come together: falling interest rates and a falling federal debt level. However, since the upheavals caused by the pandemic and the war in Ukraine, rising interest rates and rising debt levels have joined forces in the opposite direction, driving interest spending even higher in the coming years. (DC.)

How much does the turning point cost the defence ministry?

In no other department should the turning point be as clear as in the Ministry of Defense. But in no other department is there more to do – and spend. Because right now Germany has no armed forces "that are defensible," said the new Defense Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD) a few days ago – "so defensible against a brutally waged war of aggression." Thus, the Social Democrat has once again clarified from which point he starts with the Bundeswehr and his ministry. He has already made it clear that the 100 billion euros of the special fund are not enough for the next few years. If only because NATO's two-percent target – which has so far been clearly missed – should not only be a goal in the future, but the basis for everything else. His house is therefore said to have demanded ten billion euros more in the negotiations.