Köpping calls for more financial leeway

The SPD's designated lead candidate in Saxony, Petra Köpping, has called for more will to shape the state's most pressing problems. It is not enough to simply name the problems and enrich them with unworthy discussions, said the 65-year-old at the extraordinary state party conference in Neukieritzsch (Leipzig district) on Saturday. The municipalities need more financial leeway to tackle problems in the areas of education, migration and healthcare.

The welfare state must provide people with security, Köpping emphasized. "People must be able to rely on the state to help them". Opponents in the state elections on September 1 next year are not primarily the other parties, explained Köpping, who is Minister of Social Affairs and Health. "The real opponents are lies, fake news and populism."

At the party conference on Saturday afternoon, Köpping was to be elected as the lead candidate and the election manifesto was to be adopted. The Greens and SPD are currently junior partners in a coalition with the CDU, which provides the Prime Minister. In the 2019 state elections, the Social Democrats achieved 7.7 percent of the vote in the state. They are currently polling at around the same level.