Germany’s Squabbling Government Clinches Deal On 2025 Budget

Germany’s quarrelsome governing coalition has reached an agreement on the details of the country’s 2025 budget, weeks after Chancellor Olaf Scholz and top officials clinched an initial deal that then got bogged down in a new dispute, further damaging the unpopular government’s image, the Associated Press (AP) reported.

Scholz has run a three-party coalition of his center-left Social Democrats with the environmentalist Greens and the pro-business Free Democrats since December 2021.

Scholz has run a three-party coalition of his center-left Social Democrats with the environmentalist Greens and the pro-business Free Democrats since December 2021.

The alliance, which brings together parties that weren’t traditionally allies, has become notorious for frequent infighting and, on several occasions, has reopened hard-fought policy agreements.

Financial issues have become a particular bone of contention. Finance Minister Christian Lindner and his Free Democrats have been particularly adamant about saving money to adhere to Germany’s strict self-imposed rules on running up new debt.

The coalition also agreed, at their insistence in 2021, not to raise taxes. Members of the other parties have been keener on exemptions from the so-called “debt brake.”