German government rushes to slash budget after court ruling

DW (English)

Germany's government has announced a series of budget cuts, after a court ruling threw government finances into disarray. What followed was weeks of political wrangling as politicians attempted to fill a budget hole worth tens of billions of euros.

Transcript

00:00 These demonstrations by farmers sum up the dramatic loss in trust the German government

00:04 is currently seeing over budget cuts.

00:08 They have no clue and we're having to pay for it.

00:11 Farmers are angry about subsidy cuts on diesel fuel.

00:15 But they are not alone.

00:16 Polls show that overall only 17% of Germans are still happy with the work of Chancellor

00:22 Olaf Scholz's three-way coalition of Social Democrats, Greens and the pro-business Liberal

00:27 FDP party.

00:30 And the Chancellor isn't saying a thing.

00:32 These days there isn't even a need for an opposition.

00:34 People are making up their own minds on what's happening.

00:39 What's happening is that Scholz's cabinet has started attacking their own budget compromise

00:43 that took weeks to reach.

00:45 This after a court ruling in mid-November forced the government to present new plans.

00:51 At their last cabinet meeting before the Christmas break, coalition ministers were officially

00:55 informed about the deal.

00:57 Patience is wearing thin on all sides.

01:00 "Personally, I would have preferred to have been able to tell you all these details earlier.

01:06 But it took as long as it did and now everyone has a reliable basis to act upon."

01:13 Painful is how several ministries have described the cuts they now face.

01:17 800 million euros alone will be slashed from Germany's foreign policy budgets.

01:22 So political Berlin may look empty over the Christmas break, but all ministries are juggling

01:28 their figures until parliament sits again in January.

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