According to CDU finance politician Mathias Middelberg, there was a heated argument within the Union faction during the budget debate. In the special meeting on Wednesday evening “there was a lot of bang,” said Middelberg on Deutschlandfunk. "You can certainly say that openly. But that's not a bad thing in a democratic party, in a democratic function. Pretty much everyone expressed their opinion yesterday."
Among other things, it was about the planned reduction in electricity tax, which is still open, and the issue of income tax and especially the so-called “cold progression”. The Union's debate lasted significantly longer than that of the SPD.
With a view to the points about the 2027 budget that remain unclear within the black-red coalition, Middelberg referred to a coalition committee next Tuesday. "And even until then, there are still ways to organize counter-financing. However, I will say quite honestly that this is extremely ambitious. It will be difficult," he said, referring to the electricity tax. Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) also wants to reduce taxes for private households and all companies, but there is no money for that yet.
The Union and the SPD had reached important compromises before today's so-called adjustment meeting of the Budget Committee, but points are still open. The final vote on the budget will take place in the Bundestag during the week of the session from November 24th to 27th. Among other things, according to the first agreement, the plastic tax should not be imposed for the time being, and the planned sugar tax will be postponed to 2028. Cuts of over 300 million euros in housing benefit will be reversed, as will the planned cuts in the immediate child allowance.
During the budget negotiations, the black-red coalition agreed to reverse previously planned cuts in social policy projects. This is about the immediate child allowance for low earners, as the German Press Agency learned from circles of both coalition factions.
The Union and the SPD have also reached an agreement on points of contention regarding tax reform. First of all, there should be no electricity tax reduction for the general population, as Friedrich Merz demanded. The reason for this is the lack of money, reports the dpa, citing coalition circles. The sugar tax will not be introduced until 2028, a plastic tax is off the table for now.
According to the draft introduced by the cabinet, the new sugar tax should take effect on July 1, 2027. However, the Union side had advocated for a later start on January 1, 2028. It should apply, for example, to lemonades, iced teas, energy drinks and fruit juice drinks with added sugar. The originally planned tax on plastic packaging is also not scheduled to come in 2027.
In order to combat violence against women, the responsible minister, Karin Prien, is focusing on better prevention. In the Bundestag, the CDU politician promised a corresponding package of measures. The core of this is model projects for education in schools, work with perpetrators and digital violence. New approaches to prevention should be tested because, in Prien's words, “the best protection against violence is to prevent precisely this violence.”
The federal cabinet cleared the way for a strategic gas reserve on Wednesday. Accordingly, 24 terawatt hours of natural gas should be kept in reserve in times of crisis. This corresponds to around a tenth of what German natural gas storage facilities can hold in total. The amount is enough for around six winter days. However, it should only be used as “crisis preparedness for extreme cases, sabotage and rare major events,” as the draft law states. The costs for the reserve are to be passed on to gas customers via a levy, but remain comparatively low: according to the draft from the Federal Ministry of Economics, they are less than ten euros per year for an average single-family home.
However, it comes too late for the beginning of winter. Due to the high gas prices, the storage facilities were only 61 percent full by November 1st - well below the minimum level of 70 percent on average that government filling level requirements require; However, they did not foresee any consequences. The gas reserve should now replace these requirements.
The storage systems are now emptying again; on Wednesday, the European storage portal AGSI reported a level of 58.5 percent. Both the Ministry of Economic Affairs and the Federal Network Agency do not see this as a problem because Germany can increasingly supply itself with liquefied natural gas, for example by ship from the USA. Storage operators see it differently: At extremely low temperatures, the gas supply could become tight, the storage association INES warned on Tuesday.
Chancellor Friedrich Merz is skipping the UN climate conference and going to the Italian restaurant on his 71st birthday today - in protest, German climate activists cut a cake for him at the summit in Antalya. “Friedrich Merz completely disappointed us with his decision not to show up here - and not just us, but the global community,” said Luisa Neubauer from Fridays for Future.
At the same time, Merz will not be released from responsibility for a second, she said. "He decided independently and arrogantly to represent and govern our country. That has consequences, even on his own birthday."
The eleven activists sat at a table on the conference site, with a cake in front of them – “the Turkish equivalent of a Black Forest cake” – and balloons. Birthday greetings are being sent to Berlin from afar, said Neubauer. Only it’s a “Happy Birthday without a Happy Future,” she added. “We would like to be able to celebrate our 71st at some point, in stable planetary conditions.” When a piece was cut off, she said: “That would have been for Friedrich Merz – what a shame chocolate.”
According to his own words, the Chancellor wants to chair the cabinet meeting on his birthday this Wednesday and go out for a “nice Italian restaurant” with his wife and daughter in the evening. Last Wednesday, a government spokesman remained vague and said that there were “always different interests and different schedules.”
The Bundeswehr no longer plans to use Chinese-made drones in the future. The Ministry of Defense announced that the devices will no longer be used for tasks that are not security-related, such as targeting and training purposes. Existing systems would be replaced by national and, if necessary, European products. However, the ministry emphasized that there are no blanket bans on the use of systems from certain countries. Rather, the decision is based on an individual risk assessment in order to protect military security as well as data and IT security. The Spiegel had previously reported on it.
Until now, the troops had used drones from Chinese manufacturers, which were considered to be inexpensive, for purposes that did not involve any safety-related aspects. The ministry cited strengthening self-sufficiency and technological sovereignty as the reason for the step.
The SPD parliamentary group would like to offer well-integrated refugees a permanent perspective in Germany, according to the motto “Those who work can stay”. A corresponding position paper from the parliamentary group states that the prerequisites for such a right to remain would be, on the one hand, employment subject to social insurance contributions or training, studies or vocational preparation measures. Anyone who goes to school and “has a realistic prospect of graduation and integration” should also be given the right to stay. Anyone who cares for relatives or small children and is therefore only able to take up work in the future should be given the chance of a long-term stay.
The group does not consider the existing options for people whose protection status could soon be revoked to be sufficient. Obtaining a residence permit as a foreign skilled worker is linked to high formal requirements, according to the paper.
The SPD parliamentary group points in particular to the large number of people from Syria and Ukraine who work in Germany and only have a temporary residence permit. “If we were to forcibly send these well-integrated people, many of whom work in system-relevant jobs, back to their home countries, the situation on the labor market would become massively worse,” she continues in her paper. The coalition agreement between the CDU, CSU and SPD does provide for a right to remain regulation, but for a much smaller group of people.
The cabaret artist Monika Gruber is pleased about the nomination of Ilse Aigner for the office of Federal President. “As a friend, but above all as a citizen of this country, I am very pleased that Ilse Aigner is to become our new Federal President,” she wrote in a statement when asked by SZ. The two are friends; in April 2025 they gave a joint interview with Bild and called their friendship “love at first sight”. Already in that conversation, Gruber brought up Aigner as Federal President.
“She not only stands for a Christian horizon of values, but also for a modern image of women,” said Gruber. "She has always been a middle-class politician, unpretentious and a thoroughly down-to-earth personality. I therefore see her as one of the few capable of overcoming the ever-growing divisions in our society."
In that Bild interview, Aigner said that she and Gruber don't always agree when it comes to political issues. “But that’s okay and that’s what a friendship has to endure.” They have the same values, they both had “a similarly down-to-earth and grounded upbringing”.
Monika Gruber is controversial because she always takes a strong stance, often against the Greens, who have degenerated into a “totalitarian climate and warmongering sect”, but also against cabaret colleagues who, in her eyes, position themselves too one-sidedly “in the ranks of the woke and supposedly over-correct zeitgeist whores”. She recently called SPD leader Lars Klingbeil “so economically uneducated that he would be overwhelmed even by running a sausage stand.” There have also been accusations of racism. She sees herself unfairly placed in the right-wing corner. Because Gruber is often polarizing, while Aigner is perceived as a unifying person, the friendship between the two seems at least surprising to many.
Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil (SPD) wants to abolish tax classes III and V, which are used by many married couples. The aim is to simplify tax returns for citizens, according to the Ministry of Finance. The Handelsblatt first reported on the plans that the federal government is negotiating with the states.
In the future, taxation could occur automatically depending on the income distribution of the spouses. If the switch is made to the “automated factoring process”, many people who are taxed jointly will no longer have to submit a tax return, according to the Ministry of Finance. This does not change how much income tax the couple pays together.
So far, spouses and life partners can choose whether they both want to be classified in tax class IV (factor method) or whether the one with the higher income uses class III and the other uses class V. In tax class III, the monthly tax deductions are initially lower. Ultimately, the couple does not pay less taxes - but the tax burden is distributed differently between both partners.
The Ministry of Finance argues that by abolishing the tax brackets, taxation will be fairer and the partner with lower earnings will receive new incentives to work. The idea is not new: the traffic light government made up of the SPD, Greens and FDP already had it in its coalition agreement and even decided on the project in the cabinet. At that time, the Union criticized sharply - it is therefore unclear whether Klingbeil's plans will be implemented.
Left parliamentary group leader Sören Pellmann is critical of Ilse Aigner's nomination for the office of Federal President. His party would have liked a non-partisan candidate, he said in Berlin. He complained that “there is obviously a push back and forth between the SPD and the CDU/CSU”.
In times of disillusionment with politics, Pellmann would have preferred an independent person outside the political spectrum, ideally a woman. “As a representative of East Germany, I would perhaps even like someone from the East.”
One day after her nomination, Union candidate Aigner introduced herself in the Bundestag. Visits are planned to the coalition factions of the CDU/CSU and SPD as well as to the opposition Greens. With the AfD and the Left
