SPD leader Homann calls for two East Germans in federal government

Financial package: Bundestag and Bundesrat to decide this week

On Tuesday, the Bundestag is set to approve the planned billion-euro financial package negotiated by the CDU/CSU, SPD and Greens. The Bundesrat will follow on Friday. Two-thirds majorities are required in each case.

However, several MPs still want to stop the plan with an urgent application to the Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe, but some of the applications have already been rejected there.

The package is intended to amend the Basic Law in several places: Expenditure on defense, civil protection, intelligence services and cyber security should only fall under the debt brake up to a limit of one percent of gross domestic product - i.e. around 43 billion euros in terms of GDP in 2024. Anything above this can be paid for from loans.

How Saxony could benefit from the package

The federal states are to be given more leeway for their own debt. The basis for calculating this is 0.35 percent of gross domestic product, although the distribution key has not yet been determined. According to Homann, loans of 500 to 750 billion euros could be possible for Saxony.

In addition, a special fund for investments in infrastructure and climate neutrality is to be anchored in the Basic Law, which is to be exempt from the debt brake and fed with 500 billion euros from loans. Of this, 100 billion euros are earmarked for the federal states, to be paid out over a period of ten years. According to Homann, this would be 500 million euros per year for Saxony.

Copyright 2025, dpa (www.dpa.de). All rights reserved