SPD warns of "social devastation" through NRW budget

SPD warns of "social devastation" through NRW budget dpa • 46 million • 2 minutes reading time The SPD in NRW criticizes the state government's planned austerity measures for 2025. The SPD parliamentary group has once again sharply criticized the planned austerity measures in the 2025 budget of the black-green state government, especially in the social sector, and referred to financial resources that have been set aside. "We cannot, on the one hand, carry out social devastation in North Rhine-Westphalia and, on the other hand, still have a savings fund that is not being touched," said the deputy chairman of the SPD parliamentary group, Christian Dahm, at a press conference in Düsseldorf. In NRW, several billion euros of so-called self-management funds have not yet been used. In the science sector in particular, a large proportion of the funds set aside are not tied up and could be used through redistribution. "My guess is that I will create a nice financial cushion here in order to be able to finance political projects until the end of the election period, to balance the budgets 26 and 27 and to secure possible political projects," said Dahm. SPD: "Billions of euros in the bank" The current draft budget of the NRW state government foresees numerous cuts for 2025, despite a planned record budget of around 105.5 billion euros. The savings affect social areas and consumer protection, but also the police and road construction. The SPD sums up the savings in social and family matters at around 100 million euros. "This budget is the most anti-social that I have seen here for a long time," said Dahm. He is bringing down "social North Rhine-Westphalia" Reuters SPD leader: "It's not about a showdown now" The financial policy spokesman for the SPD parliamentary group, Alexander Baer, ​​explained that the savings amounted to around 6.3 billion euros. At least one billion of this was freely available. "Anyone who has several billion euros in the bank must also be able to cover 100 million euros for social services and offers," said Baer. The SPD will therefore request that this money be used to at least reverse the cuts in the social sector and use every opportunity until the budget is passed to "oppose the misguided austerity policy with all its might". Further cuts in the budget? NRW Finance Minister Marcus Optendrenk (CDU) announced last week after the latest autumn tax estimate that the NRW state budget in 2025 will probably have more than one billion euros less available than previously planned. Improvements will also probably be needed in view of a security pact passed by the state government after the knife attack in Solingen. "We are wondering whether the shortfall in revenue due to the new tax estimate will lead to further cuts or whether the state government will finally understand that self-management funds should be used to provide for the necessities in bad times," said Baer. His colleague Dahm explained that it is not the SPD's job to ensure that sufficient money is available. "I am curious to see whether they will do this with a supplementary bill or whether they will make the necessary money available now as part of the further budget discussions," said Dahm.