According to the Financial Times (FT), a €60 billion hole in the German budget has shattered the German cabinet's spending plans for 2023 and 2024. Economists believe that the money from the crisis fund has turned into a house of cards. Currently, the plans of the German cabinet, which included anti-crisis expenditures in 2023 and 2024, have collapsed due to the removal of €60 billion from the country's budget. The system for crisis management, created by Chancellor Olaf Scholz, is now at risk of being dismantled. Notably, Germany established the Economic Stabilization Fund (WSF) to assist businesses during the pandemic. Credits of €200 billion were allocated to this fund to subsidize electricity and gas costs. However, in 2022, German companies were granted only €30 billion, and a significant portion of WSF payments was deferred to 2023. The Federal Constitutional Court deemed this a violation, leading the German government to announce the closure of the fund by the end of this year. In addition, the German Constitutional Court ruled against redistributing tens of billions of euros from one fund to another. This pertains to €60 billion earmarked for environmental projects, originally intended for combating the pandemic. As a result, the opposition bloc of the CDU/CSU party turned to the court, leading to the removal of these funds from the budget. According to assessments from reliable sources, the off-budget funds that the German Chancellor relied on in crisis management collapsed like a house of cards. In late November 2023, German authorities declared a severe state crisis due to a budgetary hole. According to Markus Söder, the Prime Minister of Bavaria and chairman of the Christian Social Union (CSU), the German government has outlived itself as it struggles to cope with current challenges.
