Günther: Clarity after agreement on budget

Following the agreement reached by the traffic light coalition on the budget, Saxony's deputy head of government Wolfram Günther (Greens) is now demanding clarity on the impact on the state. "Now there must be clear statements on what the budget agreement means for specific projects, i.e. for the TSMC settlement, for the Saxon solar industry, for the decarbonization of the steel and chemical industries and for others," he said in Dresden on Wednesday.

"The traffic light coalition has clearly committed to the climate and transformation fund. That is important. Because it is the basis for jobs, value creation and international competitiveness in a future climate-neutral economy," emphasized Günther. This also applies to Saxony. "With our chip industry, our solar industry, our hydrogen economy and our energy-intensive companies, core concerns of this transformation are affected."

After days of negotiations, the leaders of the traffic light coalition reached an agreement on the federal budget for 2024. According to Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD), the SPD, Greens and FDP want to stick to their central goals, but see themselves forced to make cuts and savings following the Federal Constitutional Court's budget ruling. "We don't like making them, of course, but they are necessary so that we can get by with the money we have available," said Scholz in Berlin on Wednesday.

The German government announced in the summer that it would support the construction of a semiconductor factory by Taiwanese chip company TSMC in Dresden with up to five billion euros. This corresponds to around half of the planned investment amount.