Heads of the federal states expect agreement on federal financial package

The state premiers expect the federal government to reach an agreement on the financial package worth billions planned by the CDU/CSU and SPD. "All 16 of us would like to see the talks on an amendment to the Basic Law come to a sensible conclusion," said Saxony's head of government Michael Kretschmer (CDU) after the Minister Presidents' Conference in Berlin.

The financing of defense and infrastructure should not be separated. "The security policy situation in Germany, Europe and the world requires our country to be able to defend itself. We must invest in this," said Kretschmer.

"It is our common understanding that we cannot just spend money on tanks, missiles and Ukraine, but that we must also keep an eye on Germany's infrastructure with kindergartens, schools, roads and hospitals, and we must ensure that the federal states and local authorities are able to act."

"Germany must be able to act in all three of these categories. Things belong together, it's a joint package," emphasized Kretschmer.

Weil urges a joint approach

The Minister President of Lower Saxony, Stephan Weil, also spoke of a joint stance of all 16 federal states on the issue. The expectation is: "Please ensure that we will very quickly see a common path between the parties that are now talking to each other," said the SPD politician.

The financial packages must be dealt with together in order to avoid a discussion with the tenor that there is money for armaments but not for other issues. This is also imperative because democracy needs to be strengthened. "To achieve this, our state will have to prove itself to be very capable of taking action in the coming years and then be able to be measured by the results," said Weil.