Overview

• CDA chair Dennis Radtke labels Merz’s claim that the current social state is no longer financeable as “alarmism” and warns against “reforms with a chainsaw.”
• The government keeps its reform course, including an announced goal to cut roughly €5 billion from Bürgergeld spending.
• Chancellery minister Thorsten Frei highlights moving more beneficiaries into work and floats a housing-cost lump sum with transition rules, hardship clauses and regional differentiation.
• CSU parliamentary leader Alexander Hoffmann calls for tighter barriers to prevent migration-related abuse of benefits, saying the topic is under discussion with the SPD.
• SPD politician Bärbel Bas links larger savings to stronger growth and more efficient administration, and employers’ chief Rainer Dulger urges swift implementation to prevent further souring of public sentiment.