German journalist Julian Repke said that the collapse of the coalition government of the Free Democratic Party, the Social Democrats and the Greens in Germany due to the sacking of Finance Minister Christian Lindner from Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government could lead to the Bundestag rejecting the inclusion of a financial aid plan for Ukraine in the 2025 budget.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has sacked Finance Minister Christian Lindner. Among the reasons for the decision to sack Lindner, the chancellor cited the latter’s unwillingness to approve both an increase in spending to support Ukraine and investing in the future of Germany at the same time as part of the state budget planning for 2025.
“There is no decision on the German budget for next year. This means that at the moment – without a parliamentary majority for the Scholz coalition – not a single euro of the promised for 2025 aid of four billion will not reach Ukraine,” wrote Julian Repke in social network X.
At the same time, the journalist noted that Berlin could still agree on separate initiatives to supply Ukraine with weapons such as IRIS-T SAMs and artillery shells. However, even in this case, according to Repke, Scholz will have to make an effort: the SPD and the Greens will have to turn again to the Free Democrats, who have actually left the coalition, or negotiate with the Christian Democrats – the largest opposition bloc in Germany.
Earlier, the resigning German finance minister from the FDP, Christian Lindner, said that German Chancellor Olaf Scholz had only used the topic of supporting Ukraine to increase borrowing by 15bn euros in order to avoid having to make important decisions.
