Why ministers prefer to be on time with the budget

The draft budget for 2027 is many thousands of pages long. This has been discussed for months. And today the final details are being finalized - in the Bundestag, in the Budget Committee. Andreas Mattfeldt is there. He has been a member of the budget committee for the CDU/CSU parliamentary group for many years. “We are going through all the budget items again, every minister has to defend his budget again,” he explains.

The cleanup meeting is the highlight and final point of the deliberations. All ministers must answer questions from the committee one after the other. And “everyone is well advised to be there at least an hour before their expected appointment,” says Lisa Paus to the ARD capital studio.

The Green politician is chairwoman of the committee and was formerly Federal Minister for Family Affairs: "That's a bit unusual for ministers, because as a minister you usually get used to the fact that other people are waiting for you. That's definitely different with the Budget Committee."

Under no circumstances should ministers be late. When asked, Paus explains the practice as follows: Otherwise there could be deductions in the individual plan: "For corresponding minutes there are corresponding deductions in the budget."

Lots of open questions, lots of criticism

The cleanup session is exciting every year. Especially because of the many small household items that are often pushed back and forth at night. This year there are an unusually large number of large construction sites - such as the electricity tax, the plastic tax and the sugar tax. The CDU/CSU and SPD negotiated until the last moment. Late on Wednesday evening they agreed not to initially reduce the electricity tax because there was no counter-financing. The sugar tax should come later. And the plastic tax is off the table for now. Now the agreements still have to be incorporated into the draft budget.

The opposition not only criticizes this specifically, but also fundamentally criticizes the draft budget: "This budget is a killer for the future and nothing that gives hope for the future," says Left party leader Sören Pellmann. The budget is not socially fair. And: Too much money is flowing into armaments.

AfD leader Alice Weidel criticizes the planned high levels of new debt and says that if someone should tighten their belts, "it's the greedy tax and levy state."

Klingbeil wants to solve the “investment backlog”.

The planned new debts are likely to continue to cause discussions after the settlement meeting. "I know, of course, that I will also be criticized for the fact that we have a special fund of 500 billion and that we are incurring incredibly high debts," explained Federal Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil, SPD, last week: "But I also tell you that I think it is right that we are finding a way to resolve an investment backlog in our country."

One question remains: How long will the cleanup session last this time? “Traditionally it will last until the early hours of the morning. Last time, I think it was shortly before 6 a.m.,” said committee chairwoman Lisa Paus. But she also admits that it actually doesn't make much sense, "because we all know that if you meet for 14, 16, 18 hours, the quality doesn't get any better."

Also for labor law reasons with regard to the employees of the members of parliament and the Bundestag, there are always considerations about changing the procedure. But it is also true that in politics it sometimes takes time pressure to make compromises.