Speaking at the start of a Prime Ministers’ Conference with the Federal Chancellor, Mario Voigt, the Prime Minister of Thuringia (CDU), cautioned against the federal government proceeding with reforms unilaterally. Voigt told Focus that the states must be included from the beginning of the process. He criticized the current setup, stating that the states are too often left in a “sandwich position,” where the federal government defines the standards, municipalities are required to implement them, and the states are responsible for financing the majority of the costs. Voigt added that “this is no longer sustainable.”
Regarding the way reforms are managed, Voigt demanded that the federal government should first finalize all the reform proposals. He stressed that the states must then sit at the negotiating table in the next phase. When asked whether the states were not being properly involved so far, he responded that all reform proposals needed to be completed first, emphasizing again that the states must take their place at the table immediately afterward. Finally, responding to the question of whether the Chancellor learned anything from the failure of the relief bonus in the Bundesrat, Voigt stated, “Everyone learned from the rejection of the relief bonus in the Bundesrat.”
