Ministerial colleagues should save: Finance Minister Klingbeil promises stable social security

"Rising social security contributions are a problem. For employees, because they have less money in their pockets, and for companies, because they have higher labor costs. That's why we need to stabilize contributions," Klingbeil told the "Bild" newspaper.

Health and long-term care insurance funds, in particular, are facing a looming spike in contributions in January, which can only be offset in the short term with higher subsidies from the budget. However, Klingbeil sees this as no permanent solution: "The finance minister cannot be constantly called and asked for more money. We need structural reforms to keep contributions stable in the long term. However, I expect more imagination from all those responsible than simply cutting benefits for employees."

When drafting the 2025 budget, Klingbeil urged his colleagues to cut costs. According to the Finance Minister's specifications, each ministry must cut personnel costs by 0.5 percent and material costs by 2 percent. "I made it a priority that all ministers start doing this immediately. And that the cuts are not postponed until next year," Klingbeil said.

His top priority in drawing up the budgets for this and next year: "That Germany gets on a growth path and we secure jobs. To achieve this, we will lower energy prices and boost investment with super depreciation."

Former Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD, himself Federal Finance Minister from 2017 to 2021) advised Klingbeil for his new position that he had to learn to say no. "I can," Klingbeil said. "And I'm currently learning to get even better at it."

Regarding the planned tax reform of the CDU-SPD coalition, Klingbeil ruled out any relief for top earners: "I think it's wrong if people like me receive more relief than the cashier in the supermarket. People who earn as much as I do don't need relief from the state. I'm concerned about hard-working people with low and middle incomes."

The finance minister, who is also the SPD leader, wants to reposition his party: The 16.4 percent in the election "was a sign to us that some things had to change. People felt that we had been paying too much attention to the citizen's income and too little attention to people in work."