State finances | The Left and the Greens should secure a majority for the Saxon budget

Left parliamentary group leader Susanne Schaper and CDU Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer in the state parliament in Dresden, where the budget for 2027/28 is now being negotiated Photo: dpa/Robert Michael The black-red minority coalition in Saxony also wants to negotiate the next double budget with the Greens and the Left. The two smallest opposition factions, together with the government alliance of the CDU and SPD, had already passed the current state budget in June 2025. They are “ready to take responsibility for the Free State once again,” said Franziska Schubert, leader of the Green Party. Susi Schaper, her counterpart from the Left, explained: "We don't back down when things get serious." CDU parliamentary group leader Christian Hartmann spoke of a "strong signal for political stability from the center of parliament."

The budget should be approved by mid-December. This is what it says in an agreement that Hartmann has now informed about together with SPD parliamentary group leader Henning Homann. Both had previously courted the BSW as a possible partner. As in 2025, the talks with the Wagenknecht party did not lead to success. Among other things, this had called for payments into a generational fund to be suspended, which is intended to secure civil servants' pensions and has been anchored in the state constitution since 2017. This raised constitutional concerns among the CDU. In return, BSW parliamentary group leader Ronny Kupke accused the government alliance of “lacking the courage to make structural changes”.

The minority alliance has governed Saxony since the end of 2024. With 51 members, it is ten votes short of the majority in the 120-member state parliament. Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer (CDU) came into office thanks to additional votes from the Left and BSW. Since then, the coalition has relied on changing majorities, which are negotiated as part of a consultation mechanism with the BSW (14 seats), the Greens (7) and the Left (6). A new police law, for example, was recently passed with votes from the BSW.

The AfD, which is the strongest opposition faction with 40 MPs, is refusing to take part in consultations and, according to the coalition's wishes, should not play any role in the search for majorities. With regard to the budget, its parliamentary group leader Jörg Urban accused the CDU of once again handing out "gifts for three left-wing parties" in order "to get a majority by hanging and strangling." He called for an end to the “waste of money on the bloated administration, on asylum, climate and other ideological projects.”

“We don’t back down when things get serious.”

The Saxon budget for the next two years is worth 53.5 billion euros, although only around a tenth of this is freely available. The lion's share of the money is tied up for personnel costs, legal expenses and the co-financing of federal and EU programs. The Saxon coalition is gaining a little more leeway by taking on 1.5 billion euros in debt. Saxony is thus using the leeway that the federal government gave the states in March 2025 by easing the debt brake - not least at the insistence of the left, as Schaper emphasized. The Saxon CDU has resisted borrowing for decades.

However, the scope for the opposition parties is limited. They should be allowed to decide on the distribution of around 300 million euros. That is 50 million more than in 2025, but, as CDU parliamentary group leader Hartmann emphasized, only 0.6 percent of the total budget. The Left is aiming to make CDU Finance Minister Christian Piwarz's draft budget more "social." The Greens want to focus on climate and climate impact protection. These are “topics that would no longer happen without us,” said Schubert.

The results of the current tax estimate are likely to be helpful for the discussions. Accordingly, the Free State can expect an additional 300 million euros during the next double budget. The finance minister explained that “revenue expectations” improved slightly. He added: "However, the significant need for consolidation in the Saxon state budget remains."

It is not certain that the talks will be successful. Time is of the essence; Amendment requests must be submitted by mid-November. Schaper announced that they would now work “hard and confidentially.” Her statement can be understood as a swipe at the BSW, which also incurred the displeasure of the coalition members because agreed confidentiality was not adhered to. However, Schaper emphasized that “significant concessions” were expected. Schubert noted: "A few additional euros for the climate and society alone won't do the job." It's now time to drill thick boards.

A majority for the budget would also come about if up to three MPs from the parliamentary groups involved refused. In 2025, the left-wing MP Nam Duy Nguyen, who was directly elected in Leipzig, did this. At a party conference, he had previously made his approval dependent on a "left-wing handwriting" and warned that otherwise approval of the budget would "play into the hands of the right."

Schaper has now stated that her group will decide on their voting behavior in December “in agreement with the state party”. However, she warned that without a decided budget, the Free State would switch to "provisional budget management" from January, which would give the finance minister a free hand. "That would be the worst austerity program."

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