Kretschmer: Federal states agree on demand for cost reimbursement

In the struggle over the financing of the planned package to stimulate the economy, the federal states are unanimously demanding compensation for their costs, according to the Chairman of the Conference of Minister Presidents, Michael Kretschmer (CDU). "16 federal states, 16 times the same opinion," said the Saxon Minister President on Deutschlandfunk radio after a joint dinner of the heads of the state governments the previous evening with Federal Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU). They will meet in the morning for the Minister Presidents' Conference without Merz, who has traveled to the USA.

The costs of the project will mainly be borne by the federal states and local authorities, said CDU politician Kretschmer. The following therefore applies to everyone: "We need this reform to get Germany back on its feet, we need to become more competitive. But we can't burden the municipalities with this, and we can't do it as federal states either. And that's why we agreed last night: we will find a solution to share the costs and reimburse the federal states and municipalities in such a way that the whole thing is feasible." He added: "It will essentially be clarified via the distribution of VAT." The revenue from this is shared between the federal government, federal states and local authorities.

At the same time, Kretschmer called for the principle to be introduced between the federal government and the federal states, as is the case between the federal states and local authorities, that federal laws that impose costs on the federal states are subject to compensation. "Now is the time to work out a viable solution for the coming years and decades," said Kretschmer.

A reduction in social benefits is also necessary. "The state has also taken on too many tasks that are actually the responsibility of the citizens," he said. "When the state reduces its services, especially social services, this is usually accompanied by a heated debate, but we cannot afford to avoid this." Citizen's income is "one of the central issues".