Red alarm level: Thuringia needs an early warning system for the household

Red alarm level: Thuringia needs an early warning system for the household

The Thuringian Court of Auditors raises the alarm: In her current report, President Kirsten Butzke warns of an impending financial chaos in the federal state. In view of growing budget problems, she sees the need for an early warning system in order to be able to react to the financial risks in good time. Butzke considers the planned investment program for municipalities in the amount of one billion euros to be problematic by 2029 and describes it as hidden public debt, which could further restrict the financial scope in Thuringia. reports that Thuringia is planning a total of 150 billion euros for the federal budget, with record investments and record debt in the room stand.

The state government aims to secure the financial future of Thuringia and to adapt the borrowing to the economic conditions. The country is currently planning around 1.1 billion euros in loans in the 2026/27 double budget, 600 million euros in the coming year and around 500 million euros for 2027. These loans are necessary to make investments that should also have noticeable effects. But Butzke warns caution: she warns that debts are not free and that interest and repayment payments will narrow the country's financial scope in the long term. The Thuringian Finance Ministry In recent years, except during the Corona pandemic, no new loans have taken out and reduced part of the existing debt since 2025.

for 2025, Thuringia forecast around 250 million euros in interest for debts that have already been accumulated. The state budget has a volume of almost 14 billion euros. The financing problem is reinforced by the effects of the solidarity package. Thuringia receives around 14.31 %annually from the contributions of the Solidar Pact II, which provided 156.5 billion euros for the new federal states between 2005 and 2019. According to Wikipedia , the Solidar Pact I ran from 1995 to 2004, while the Solidar Pact II had the economic alignment of the new federal states, which is still inadequate today.

The influence of the solidarity package

The financial allocations of the Solidar Pact II are divided into two “baskets”, with the first basket of 105.3 billion euros for closing the infrastructure gap and the compensation of municipal financial strength. Thuringia received a total of around 15.07 billion euros from these funds during this period. However, the annual allocations from Korb I, which are degressively designed by 2019, remained behind the expectations. Nevertheless, Thuringia was able to call up large parts of the federal government's disproportionate benefits of 9.44 billion euros. This shows that the Solidar Pact makes a significant contribution to the financial stability of the country.

But the challenges are enormous: a good knack for financial policy is urgently required to minimize the impending risks and to bring Thuringia to a stable course for the future.