Kretschmer swears Saxony in for difficult times

Saxony's Minister President Michael Kretschmer is preparing the state for difficult times in view of tight budgets. "There will have to be cuts in all areas," said the CDU politician after a budget meeting on the future double budget. There is currently a shortfall of around 2.3 billion euros this year and around two billion euros next year. "We've never seen anything like this before."

Saxony draws on reserves

According to Kretschmer, Saxony will use the budget equalization reserve - currently around 1.2 billion euros - and pay 270 million euros less per year into the generation fund to compensate for the deficit. The fund is intended to cushion the state's future pension burdens. A change in the repayment of loans to cope with the coronavirus pandemic is also planned. This will bring provisional savings of 130 million euros per year.

The concept for covering the budget also provides for reductions in expenditure on personnel and material costs in the administration and state-owned companies. Funds for the co-financing of EU and federal funding programs are also to be reduced. In addition, the Free State wants to reduce bureaucracy, do without reports and lower standards.

Draft budget to be presented swiftly

Kretschmer called for a swift agreement on a government draft budget. It should be available by March 24. "Many people in this country are waiting for this. Many entrepreneurs, many groups in society are dependent on it. And that is why it is very important that this task is now tackled quickly and expeditiously," said Kretschmer, referring to a difficult economic environment.

The Saxon head of government linked this to the failure of the current federal government. "There are reasons why we will be voting in a few weeks' time. This wanton increase in energy prices, the great uncertainty that has been sown in many economic areas, but also the uncontrolled increase in expenditure through federal laws is having an impact in all areas of the municipal level and also the federal states."

Head of government assures municipalities of support

Kretschmer assured the municipalities of broad support. The municipal level in particular is groaning under rising social costs. "We are in this together." Germany needs to get out of the recession and start growing again. "The attempt to say that we are getting closer to the climate targets by letting the economy shrink was nonsense and is now having drastic consequences."

Social Affairs Minister Petra Köpping (SPD) called for the problems to be better explained to people. "We need to explain more. We need to go out to the people more to tell them very clearly where our options are and where we want to look for other options." She sensed "a lot of positive will" at the retreat. This made her optimistic that it would be possible to achieve positive things as a minority government despite the difficult times.

Finance Minister calls for comprehensive consolidation strategy

"We need a comprehensive consolidation strategy - in the short and medium term," concluded Finance Minister Christian Piwarz (CDU). The coalition had agreed on a coverage concept for the current double budget. The individual plans would now be discussed in detail in the further process. Piwarz demanded a clear prioritization of all departments.