Overview

• The budget committee approved the 2025–2026 double budget draft by a 5-4 vote, with SPD/BSW members in favor and CDU and AfD in opposition.
• The coalition rolled back planned cuts for municipalities, the care pact and the Brandenburg Medical School but retained an extra weekly teaching hour and €200 million in annual hospital investments.
• Finance Minister Robert Crumbach’s plan seeks to permit roughly €1 billion in additional annual borrowing by extending the downturn comparison period for debt to ten years.
• Economist Achim Truger argued that a ten-year smoothing period is justified by Brandenburg’s weaker economy, while Jens Boysen-Hogrefe warned it could breach the constitutional debt-repayment symmetry requirement.
• Trade unions, local municipalities and education groups have held protests against planned savings measures, warning that deep cuts could jeopardize school operations and public services.