Bundestag Budget Talks: Klingbeil Warns Reforms Must Not Dismantle the Welfare State

Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil used the opening of Bundestag budget deliberations to draw a line around how far Germany’s reform drive should go. Under the banner of reform, he said, the government must not pursue a “systematic dismantling of our welfare state.”

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Under the banner of reform, there must be no systematic dismantling of our welfare state.

“Everyone knows and feels that change is coming,” the SPD politician said. The decisive question, he argued, was whether people experienced progress as a threat or as an improvement. Two days after the AfD’s strong victory in the state election in Saxony-Anhalt, Klingbeil said the fairness of change had to be placed at the center of political decisions.

Reforms, he warned, must not leave some people receiving ever more opportunities while others feel they are being left behind. His remarks followed calls from senior SPD politicians for the coalition to adjust its reform course after the election. Trade unions and associations have also criticized planned changes in healthcare, pensions and long-term care as social cutbacks.

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Everyone knows and feels that change is coming.

Klingbeil said the government needed to coordinate its reform plans closely with unions and employers. “Different perspectives and interests must come together,” he said. People who work and keep the country running deserved respect, good working conditions and a fair share of prosperity.

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Different perspectives and interests must come together.

The Union’s deputy parliamentary group leader, Mathias Middelberg, defended the government’s planned high spending and new borrowing, saying investments were beginning to produce results. He said Germany would see growth in 2026 for the first time in five years. But he also warned that borrowing could not become a permanent condition. The budget draft for 2027 provides for more than 555 billion euros in federal spending, nearly 6% above the current year, and net borrowing of almost 119 billion euros. Middelberg said savings were needed to escape the cycle of rising debt and interest costs, and cited housing benefit as one area under review.

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We see now that our investments are bearing fruit.