Finance in Brandenburg | Household and support

SPD Prime Minister Dietmar Woidke (l.) only intervened in the budget debate with heckles during the speech by AfD parliamentary group leader Hans-Christoph Berndt (r.). Photo: dpa/Annette Riedl Brandenburg's state parliament treated the draft of the double budget 2027/2028 in first reading on Wednesday and then referred it to the committees for discussion with the votes of the coalition factions SPD and CDU and the BSW spin-off "We for Brandenburg". The debate was always not about our own federal state, but about the conditions in the neighboring state of Saxony-Anhalt.

SPD parliamentary group leader Björn Lüttmann called on the BSW not to become the AfD's stirrup holder in Saxony-Anhalt by electing Ulrich Siegmund as the party's first prime minister. The AfD received 43.8 percent of the votes in the state elections in Saxony-Anhalt on September 6th, the BSW 5.3 percent - and only the BSW wants to hold talks with the AfD about possible cooperation.

An electoral success for the AfD would also be possible at the federal level and in Brandenburg if this party is not banned beforehand, said SPD parliamentary group leader Lüttmann in Potsdam. Those who are against government responsibility for the AfD must finally wake up - and that is still the majority. Brandenburgers should support the democratic parties and ideally join them, Lüttmann wished.

BSW parliamentary group leader Niels-Olaf Lüders explained that comments on the state elections in Saxony-Anhalt fit in well with the budget debate in Brandenburg, because the double budget presented here is "an expression of the incompetence of politics." Lüders said: “Our democracy is at a crossroads – and not, as some think, because democracy is at an end. In fact, it's more alive than ever before. I remind you of the very high voter turnout in Saxony-Anhalt." Lüders predicted: "The population is on the verge of voting out the elites who are so out of touch that they are no longer even able to recognize their wrong path and correct it."

»You can't save your way to a good and better future.«

Lüders was pleased that the BSW in Saxony-Anhalt is making the politicians of the old parties and the journalists in the capital's editorial offices spin. But he also said that there were only a few points of overlap between the AfD and BSW and "damn few when it comes to budgetary issues."

In Lüders' opinion, what should be corrected is that "bombs and rockets" should be built again in Brandenburg, since this country was bombed and shot up in the Second World War because of the arms industry that was based here at the time. Now Brandenburg is being made a target again through rearmament. For the federal government of Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) and its "decal" in Brandenburg, war is more important than railway lines, schools and hospitals, complained Lüders.

He quoted the sentence without citing the source: "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." This statement is often attributed to the physicist Albert Einstein. But there is no proof that Einstein actually said that. It was madness, said Lüders, to just manage instead of having the courage to present new answers and to advocate for a wealth tax in Germany that would generate more government revenue.

AfD parliamentary group leader Hans-Christoph Berndt does not believe that there is a lack of income. "Brandenburg is the eastern federal state with the best economic conditions," said Berndt in the state parliament. He recalled that 300,000 people from Brandenburg commute to work in Berlin, that the BER airport in Schönefeld and the Tesla car factory in Grünheide were built because of the proximity to the capital. “Brandenburg benefits from its proximity to Berlin and, by the way, not a little from the cityscape of Berlin, which is repulsive in many places,” said Berndt. That's why around 200,000 Berliners have moved out to Brandenburg since 2019 and the state has been able to maintain its population, while Saxony-Anhalt has lost a quarter of its population since 1990 without this advantage.

The AfD parliamentary group leader put Brandenburg's per capita income at 6,858 euros in 2025. The East German average is only 6,683 euros. Nevertheless, Brandenburg has accumulated a mountain of debt and now has to pay almost 400 million euros in interest per year on its loans. For Berndt one thing is certain: “Brandenburg lives beyond its means. Brandenburg doesn’t have a revenue problem, but rather a structural spending problem.”

But Finance Minister Daniel Keller (SPD) said: "You can't save your way to a good and better future." He explained that "the state of Brandenburg saves where the state can limit itself to a certain extent and invests where the state is not allowed to withdraw." By the end of 2029, 478 jobs are to be cut in the state administration, but not in the police, judiciary, schools and tax offices, explained Keller. This workforce reduction will save 70 million euros.

CDU parliamentary group leader Steeven Bretz calculated that there was originally a deficit of 3.4 billion euros for 2027 and 3.3 billion for 2028. Due to the requests made by the individual ministries, this budget hole has increased to 3.7 billion euros for 2027 and 4.8 billion euros for 2028. However, the coalition has managed to reduce planned spending by 1.6 billion euros next year and by 2.8 billion the year after. “I don’t know of any state government that has ever accomplished such a herculean task of reducing such a deficit to such a significant extent,” praised Bretz. The remaining budget holes are being filled with loans and the liquidation of reserves.

It is noticeable that his party is missing from the state parliament, commented the Green Party state chairman Clemens Rostock. The state government is saving on education, rail transport and climate protection. “At the same time, there is no convincing concept to keep Brandenburg financially capable of acting in the long term,” said Rostock. Even after this year's record heat summer, the coalition does not have the strength to demand appropriate water fees from large industrial consumers and for the Welzow-Süd opencast brown coal mine. “Instead, water prices should rise for everyone.”

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