Finance Minister Piwarz: New debt will not solve problems

Saxony's Finance Minister Christian Piwarz is cautious about taking on new debt for the next state budget. "The Free State has a structural problem for which new debt would be the completely wrong answer. We continue to have rising revenues, but expenditure is galloping away from us by orders of magnitude," said the CDU politician in an interview with the "Freie Presse" newspaper.

"If we take on new debt, we will exacerbate the problem by incurring considerable interest charges. Instead, we need to put the entire state system on its feet in such a way that we can manage with the revenues in the medium and long term." It must be clarified what Saxony still wants to afford in the future - and what it can no longer afford. "Without an answer to this question, a debate about new debt falls far too short. The state must be financially viable," said Piwarz.

State job cuts

This also involves job cuts in public administration. "The fact that we are becoming fewer and fewer in Saxony must also be reflected in the number of civil servants," said Piwarz. However, jobs should not simply be cut, but processes should be made more efficient through digitalization, automation and the merging of administrative structures. In addition, there would be age-related departures. "Nobody has to worry about losing their job," said Piwarz.