CDU leader Merz accuses government of excessive personnel policy

Before the beginning of the budget week in the Bundestag, the CDU chairman Friedrich Merz criticized the strong increase in jobs in the ministries and subordinate federal authorities. “We have a debt level of historic proportions. It cannot be that the traffic light ministers have lost all measure,” said Merz WELT AM SONNTAG. The blanket job cuts that the SPD, Greens and FDP have agreed on for the coming year is not enough for the parliamentary group leaders of the CDU and CSU. Savings must be made in the ministries in particular, where the post structure of the traffic light is particularly high.

When the parliamentarians pass the 2023 federal budget next week, they will decide to create 4,769 additional jobs. This emerges from a statement by the Federal Ministry of Finance. Overall, the number of additional jobs created by the traffic light government since it started twelve months ago has risen to 10,356.

According to the Ministry of Finance, the flat-rate job cuts of 1.5 to 1.6 percent in the coming year would only result in around 3,100 jobs being lost. Aside from the newly created Ministry of Construction, the biggest job gains were in the Economics and Transport Ministries, the Foreign Office, and the Health and Development Ministries.

Dietmar Bartsch, chairman of the left faction, is also critical of the traffic light government's personnel policy. "Citizens suffer from gigantic additional costs, some companies are facing bankruptcy and the traffic lights are inflating the ministries - that doesn't go together," he told WELT AM SONNTAG. The increase in personnel must be checked on two points: does it contribute to overcoming the crisis and does it benefit future viability. "If the criteria do not apply, a hiring moratorium should apply to the crisis," said Bartsch.