Dispute over easing the Saxon debt brake

Saxony's state parliament wants to pass a double budget by the summer break and is therefore facing its biggest test yet. This is because the CDU and SPD coalition parties are ten votes short of a majority in parliament. Even in the run-up to the budget deliberations starting on Thursday, it became clear that the opposition and the government are far apart in their ideas so far.

Opposition rejects government's draft budget

The Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance, the Greens and the Left Party consider the government's draft budget to be unacceptable in its current form. The AfD also rejects it outright, as does the non-attached MP Matthias Berger (Free Voters). For Berger and the AfD, the draft stands for "business as usual". Structural problems in the country would not be addressed and would be glossed over, they said.

AfD criticizes personnel policy with too many jobs

AfD party and parliamentary group leader Jörg Urban criticized the state's personnel policy in particular, which has led to the creation of a good 96,000 state employees in recent years.

Urban sees the USA and Elon Musk as a role model for increasing the efficiency of the state's own administration. Saxony, like the federal government, has a revenue problem, which is why a task review is needed to determine what the state can still achieve in the future, he said, among other things.

Contrasting views on easing the debt brake

Different attitudes also became clear on the issue of an easing of new borrowing made possible by the federal government at state level. The CDU and AfD reject this outright. The Greens more or less made the easing a condition for even entering into negotiations with the governing coalition. Franziska Schubert, leader of the Green parliamentary group, emphasized that the least that could be done was to incorporate the loan option into the budget.

The credit facility was needed to give us breathing space and prevent very harsh cuts and austerity proposals, said Schubert. This cannot be cured with cosmetic changes. "We want to see very fundamental changes here."

Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer once described the Greens as a "destructive force". "What we have here is a work of destruction," said Schubert with regard to the government draft.

The double budget will be presented to the state parliament on Thursday. This is also when the first consultation will take place.