Berlin budget in the crisis: protests against billions in savings!

Berlin budget in the crisis: protests against billions in savings!

The planned billions in the Berlin State Budget are about to be finalized. On Thursday, the House of Representatives is expected to adopt the supplementary budget for 2025 with the votes of the black and red coalition. The Governing Mayor Kai Wegner from the CDU intends to explain the procedure in a government declaration, while protests by university representatives, science institutions and unions will take place in front of the parliament building. In total, three billion euros are to be saved in the household 2025, which means that two thirds of them should be achieved through cuts. You want to secure the rest through alternative forms of financing such as loans of state -owned companies, as can be read in a report by rbb24

massive cuts in different areas

The savings affect practically all household areas, with the traffic, environment and climate protection sector in particular with savings of around 787 million euros, which makes up 22 percent of the budget. Particularly noteworthy is the abolition of the 29-euro ticket for local public transport and the increase in the 9-euro social ticket to 19 euros. Serious cuts of around 131 million euros are also planned in the cultural sector, including the deletion of the free museum Sunday and considerable cuts in theater and museums. This is taken up in an article by Welt . Despite the protests in the cultural industry and renegotiations that mitigated some of the cuts, the total amount of austerity measures in the cultural budget remains unchanged.

The effects of the cuts can also be felt for the students: the semester contribution for around 170,000 students in Berlin will probably increase by 22 euros, since the subsidies to the Studierenwerk will be shortened by around 6.5 million euros. Overall, the science administration will have to save 250 million euros next year, which the science senator Ina Czyborra describes as painful. These savings stand against the background of the continuing protests and concern about the future of the Berlin science location, as can be seen from the reports.