Overview
- Sven Schulze, designated to succeed Reiner Haseloff, urged reintroducing Bürgerarbeit across Germany as compulsory community work tied to social benefits.
- His plan would apply universally, including to German citizens and migrants, with the goal of pushing recipients back into regular employment.
- Schulze said Germany’s welfare system costs too much and called for "more pressure" to exit state support, positioning his idea against the federal reform course.
- The German Trade Union Confederation warned such jobs often fail to provide a living income without additional aid, and The Left labeled the concept forced labor.
- Left Bundestag leader Heidi Reichinnek cautioned the duty-to-work model could displace regular jobs, as Schulze prepares for a late-January parliamentary vote to become minister-president ahead of a September state election.