Alexander Schweitzer urges German government to boost funding for municipalities

Former Rhineland‑Palatinate minister‑president and acting SPD leader Alexander Schweitzer said the federal government must increase its financial support for towns and municipalities. He told the German press agency that the current approach does not match the scale of structural deficits, rising social‑spending obligations and economic pressures facing local authorities.

Schweitzer praised the recent Ministerpräsidentenkonferenz (MPK) agreement on a finance reform – the “who orders, pays” principle – as a first step, but warned that further measures are needed to address the systemic shortfall in municipal budgets. He framed stronger federal aid as a duty to the foundations of German democracy.

The MPK deal, reached at the end of June, aims to ease the burden of soaring social expenditures on municipalities, but Schweitzer argued it falls short of solving the underlying deficits across Germany.