BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany’s coalition partners could soon finalize a draft budget for 2024, Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Monday in Berlin.

“We have made so much progress that we can be very confident that we will be able to report the results to you soon,” Olaf Scholz said.

The Chancellor will continue budget negotiations with Finance Minister Christian Lindner and Economics Minister Robert Habeck on Monday evening.

Olaf Scholz’s three-party coalition is trying to reach a budget deal after a court ruling last month upended its financing plans and forced it to suspend a constitutionally enshrined “debt brake.” , for the 2023 budget.

Christian Lindner, member of the fiscally conservative Liberal Democratic Party (FDP), wants the return of the debt brake for the 2024 budget, and which limits Germany’s public deficit to 0.35% of GDP.

However, Olaf Scholz and Robert Habeck want the debt brake to be suspended again in 2024, for the fifth consecutive year.

Germany’s coalition partners could agree on a draft budget this week, said Saskia Esken, co-leader of the Social Democrats (SPD), the party to which Olaf Scholz is attached, on the ZDF television channel on Monday.

The Greens believe that an agreement is possible by Wednesday. “A quick solution is possible,” said Ricarda Lang, co-leader of the Greens, on Monday in Berlin.

The general secretary of the FDP, Bijan Djir-Sarai, nevertheless declared in Berlin that rigor must take precedence over speed, and rejected the idea of ​​a tax increase.

The other option is that of a reduction in spending, but Olaf Scholz nevertheless clarified on Saturday that there would be no reduction in state aid, an area in which Christian Lindner had called for reforms.

According to government spokesman Wolfgang Buechner, a review of aid to Ukraine is also not on the agenda. “Nothing will change in this regard.”

(Reporting by Christian Kraemer and Holger Hansen, by Corentin Chappron, edited by Kate Entringer)

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