Over 140 billion euros in loan and expenditure 0.5 trillion budget Germany for 2025, the first of Friedrich Mertz’s government, who was approved today (19.9.2025) a short time ago by the Bundestag.
The new budget provides for costs of about 502.5 billion euros, net lending of almost € 82 billion and additional loans from special funds to the Armed Forces and Infrastructure. Overall, The new borrowing is expected to reach more than 140 billion euros.
Following the collapse of the government under Allf Saltz and early elections, the ministries have been operating so far with temporary budgets. The now approved budget provides planning security – but only by the end of the year. Discussions on the 2026 budget, scheduled to be approved before Christmas, will begin in the coming weeks.
The largest spending funds are concerned with employment and social affairs, with just more than 190 billion eurosmore than one -third of the federal budget, to be channeled into this area. The 122.5 billion euros of these relate to pension insurance and nearly 52 billion euros are scheduled for basic security for those looking for workincluding nearly € 30 billion for the benefit of citizens, which the Coalition intends to reform.
Bundeswehr will have a significant more money at its disposal. The defensive budget will increase to just over 62 billion euros for 2025 – 10 billion more than the previous year. Additional, There will be another 24 billion euros from the Bundeswehr Special Fund. This means that for the first time, more than € 86 billion will be available for defense expenditure, for example, for the supply of new military equipment, such as ammunition, wheelchair vehicles and warships.
The Ministry of Transport budget will be reduced by EUR 6 billion to EUR 38.3 billionbut remains the largest investment budget. About 23.7 billion euros have been provided for investment and an additional € 11.7 billion from the Special Infrastructure Fund will be channeled to railways, roads and bridges. The share capital of the German Railways (Deutsche Bahn) will also increase significantly.
Finance Minister Lars Kleningbail (SPD) defended the budget for criticism, especially by the left party, that despite the record costs, citizens end up limited resources. What is most concerned about people during the economic downturn is the fear of losing their jobs, the minister stressed, noting that this is why the government gives a absolute priority to “ensuring the return of economic growth to Germany, to ensure jobs here and to create jobs”.
The Greens and the left party They also accused the federal government of fraudulent budget planning instead of investing. Regarding the use of the Special Fund, the Greens of the Greens Sebastian Sefer criticized the investments designed by the CDU/CSU and the SPD, saying they offer very few future prospects. “Our country will not make progress in this way,” he said. SPD’s budget leader, Torsten Rudolph, rejected the accusations and talked about an unprecedented investment package that will lay the foundations for a complete modernization.
OR Alternative for Germany (AfD) demanded that a significantly smaller debt be created. To this end, the parliamentary group had proposed to reduce climate projects, EU contributions and weapons traditions to Ukraine.
While the budget of 2025 applies only to one quarter of the year, the concerns of the CDU/CSU and SPD have long been focused on the future, as by 2027 there is already a financial gap of more than 30 billion. The finance minister is constantly stressing that no coalition had to close such a big gap, while Chancellor Friedrich Mertz prepared the citizens yesterday for “inevitable extensive reforms in fundamental areas”.