Overview
- The newly formed Allianz für Sachsen, uniting municipal leaders and business groups, published a positions paper demanding deep cuts to bureaucracy, stronger education and vocational training, faster skilled‑worker immigration and rebalanced municipal finances.
- Saxony’s state workforce would be reduced from about 94,000 to 80,000 by 2035 through actual job cuts, with approval offices substantially trimmed by 2027 and an investment share of at least 20 percent targeted long term.
- The alliance invited Minister‑President Michael Kretschmer to a binding process, expects concrete milestones by summer, and wants a Reform‑ und Stärkungsgesetz introduced alongside the 2027/28 budget draft.
- Saxony’s Economics Ministry said it took the proposals ‘with interest,’ citing high economic and demographic pressure and highlighting bureaucracy reduction, investment and skilled‑labor policy as current priorities.
- At an IHK reception, Chancellor Friedrich Merz said he would ‘probably abolish the Working Time Act,’ prompting resistance from SPD, Greens and others who note worker‑protection and EU legal limits, while debate also flared over Markus Söder’s call for merging smaller Länder, which several state leaders rejected despite constitutional feasibility.