How the traffic light could save around 79 billion euros

Berlin For Christian Lindner (FDP) it is a seemingly harmless answer. During the recent government survey in the Bundestag, a member of parliament wanted to know from the finance minister how he intends to improve government revenue. “We will check subsidy payments,” says Lindner. “This also results in improvements in income.” After a short break, he adds “possibly”.

In which case. This is important. There are few political demands that are raised as often and implemented as rarely as the abolition of financial aid and tax breaks. In theory, reducing subsidies sounds good, but in practice it means a lot of trouble. The resistance is too strong, the fear of public displeasure is too great.

There is a lot of savings potential. The Handelsblatt has drawn up a list of dozens of subsidies, tax breaks and also some social benefits and support programs that economists believe are either harmful to the climate, economically inefficient or whose effectiveness is at least doubtful. In total, the federal government could save around 78.5 billion euros a year.