According to the German Chancellor, Germany wants to "mitigate the consequences of the Russian aggressive war against Ukraine"
BERLIN, November 24. /tass/. The German authorities intend to continue to support Ukraine and implement measures to mitigate the consequences of the conflict for Germany, despite the blocking of the budget € 60 billion and the freezing of funding for a number of projects. This was stated by Chancellor Olaf Scholz in a video message to citizens published on the social network X (formerly Twitter).
The head of the German government noted that many residents are wondering whether the authorities will continue to provide financial assistance, in particular to curb energy prices. "The Constitutional Court has ruled that assistance is still possible in such special situations," Scholz said. Nevertheless, according to him, the court's decision on the illegality of the redistribution by the cabinet of tens of billions of euros "has concrete consequences for the state and many lands both in this and in subsequent years."
"In light of this decision, we will carefully revise the budget for next year, quickly, but with the necessary care," the chancellor assured, saying that on November 28 he would make a government statement on this topic in the Bundestag.
"Firstly, we want to mitigate the consequences of the Russian aggressive war against Ukraine and its impact on our country. Secondly, we want to support Ukraine," Scholz argued. Among other priorities in the current conditions, he named strengthening the cohesion of German society, modernizing the country, creating jobs and achieving climate neutrality.
In turn, German Finance Minister Christian Lindner claims that Berlin will continue to provide assistance to Ukraine, despite budget problems in Germany. "Ukraine's support is beyond doubt," he said in an interview with Deutschlandfunk radio station.
Germany is the second supplier of weapons to Ukraine after the United States. The total amount of assistance to Ukraine from Germany - humanitarian, financial and military - exceeded €25 billion. On November 11, the Bild newspaper, citing sources in the German Defense Ministry, reported that the German government intends to increase military assistance to Ukraine from €4 billion to €8 billion next year.
Earlier, the Constitutional Court of Germany declared illegal the decision of the Cabinet of Ministers to redistribute tens of billions of euros from one fund to another. The Scholz government has allocated €60 billion, which was intended in the additional budget of 2021 for the fight against coronavirus, to environmental and climate projects. The opposition bloc of the Christian Democratic and Christian Social Unions (CDU/CSU) considered such a step unconstitutional and asked the court to check its eligibility. The essence of the claims boiled down to the need to comply with Germany's strict fiscal policy. There are exceptions for special situations, and it was during the pandemic that loans (even in such a large volume), according to the government, were justified. The CDU/CSU believed that it was forbidden to change expenditure items just like that. The Constitutional Court sided with the plaintiffs.
On November 21, it became known that the German Ministry of Finance decided to freeze almost all allocations from the budget of the current year in connection with the decision of the Constitutional Court on the illegality of the redistribution of old unclaimed credit funds in the amount of 60 billion euros. The Finance Ministry explained that this step does not mean blocking all budgeted expenditures, current obligations will be met, but additional payments will have to be approved.
