Saxony's finance minister wants to save money

In view of the difficult economic situation, Saxony's Finance Minister Christian Piwarz (CDU) wants to make savings. "We are in a difficult situation. The Free State's tax revenues are rising, but more slowly than originally expected," he told the "Sächsische Zeitung" and the "Leipziger Volkszeitung". In the interview, Piwarz spoke of a possible "savings mix". "We are thinking about reducing our annual payments into the civil servants' pension fund by 270 million euros." We also need to question "whether we can still co-finance every funding program from the federal government or the EU as before or whether we need to make savings there".

Piwarz was once Minister of Culture in Saxony and is now responsible for the finance department in the new cabinet. In the newspaper interview, he announced his intention to access the state's budget reserve. "We will use this reserve as part of the consolidation. That is justified. Because it is needed for crisis situations and the economic situation is such a crisis," he said. We are also looking at the approximately 6,000 unfilled positions in the state service. "It needs to be clarified whether and to what extent we use the funds that are not needed here for other purposes."