The FDP politician said on ZDF that he was not interested in abolishing benefits. Although one could also discuss it. The most important thing, however, is that new subsidies, social spending and standards are not always added – because there are already quite a lot of them. Lindner emphasized that if it were possible to get by with what we have for three years, then that would be a “very big step” towards consolidation.

The Green Party co-chairwoman Lang, on the other hand, stated that external security should not be played off against social security in the country. It will not be possible to finance spending on defense and support for Ukraine only from the current budget. We have to find other options for this, said Lang.

The general manager of the Paritätischer Wohlfahrtsverband, Schneider, called it “socially destructive to want to play off the defense budget against social spending.” There are more than 14 million low-income people in Germany, and more than one in five children now live in a poor family, Schneider told the newspapers of the Funke media group. Society is facing enormous demographic challenges.