Due to the weak development of the economy and tax revenue, the North Rhine-Westphalia state government wants to budget additional money for the current financial year. To this end, the Düsseldorf state parliament is expected to pass an addendum to the 2024 budget law on Wednesday (around 3 p.m.). The government factions of the CDU and the Greens can push the change through parliament with their votes. This increases the budget volume to 102.8 billion euros. The budget originally planned for 700 million euros less.
For both the current and the coming year, the state government wants to use an economic component of the so-called debt brake in order to be able to take out new loans within the constitutional limits. NRW Finance Minister Marcus Optendrenk (CDU) had already assured a few weeks ago that the state government would only use credit authorizations totaling around three billion euros in 2024 and 2025 “to the extent absolutely necessary”.
The supplementary budget includes, among other things, financial security measures that the state government decided on shortly after the fatal knife attack in Solingen in August. The catalog of measures provides for three additional asylum chambers in the administrative courts, expanded responsibilities of the five central immigration authorities and greater prevention of terrorism by combating financial crime and terrorist financing.
In front of the state parliament at noon (around 12 p.m.) welfare associations want to demonstrate against planned cuts in the social sector. More than 20,000 participants are expected. The associations accuse the black-green state government of saving 83 million euros in the social sector next year. The SPD opposition is calling for the cuts to be reversed.
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst (CDU) rejected allegations from the SPD that the country still had billions in reserve. “There is no bag of money that we can take and just don’t want,” he had assured. “If there really was still money, I wouldn’t take on new debt.”
At the beginning of the plenary session (10 a.m.), the state parliament will debate the effects of Donald Trump’s victory in the US elections on North Rhine-Westphalia in a current hour.
