Gov't Spox-No Agreement On Budget Details @ 20 Dec Cabinet Meeting

Wires carrying comments from a German gov't spox stating that they do not expect the details of the 2024 federal budget to be agreed upon by the Cabinet at a meeting on Wednesday 20 December. Despite this, spox claims that the gov't is 'determined to implement the agreed budget.' The 2024 budget is set to progress with the constitutional debt brake in tact after a deal reached between the three parties in the 'traffic light' coalition.

• The Bundestag approvedthe 2023 supplementary budget with the debt brake suspended on 15 Dec. The move follows the Constitutional Court decision in November that ruled against an off-budget climate change fund, blowing multi-billion-euro hole in the federal budget.
• Some of the potential measures in the 2024 budget have drawn criticismfrom all corners of the federal gov't, with an end to subsidies on agricultural diesel opposed by the Greens and Free Democrats, while Chancellor Olaf Scholz's Social Democrats have railed against an immediate cessation of subsidies to purchasers of electric vehicles.