Budget surplus causes a lot of trouble among federal politicians

Berlin Werner Gatzer (SPD) isn’t easily disturbed. Since 2005, the 63-year-old has overseen the federal budget as State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Finance. Gatzer has seen everything. But even the experienced householder could hardly believe the figures he recently received.

Gatzer acted: the federal ministers should please put every issue, every allocation to the federal states to the test, he then instructed the colleagues from the other departments in an internal round to the budget deliberations.

The reason for Gatzer’s announcement: While the federal government had to incur record debts of 215 billion euros last year because of the corona crisis, the federal states themselves brought in a small budget surplus during the pandemic.