In the coalition agreement of the traffic light coalition, the government has decided to end state payments to the church. The traffic light coalition wants to circumvent criticism from the states.
Berlin – In 2024, the churches in Germany received around 618 million euros in state benefits from the federal states. Compared to the church’s income from church tax – around 6.52 billion euros in 2023 – the state benefits are thus a kind of secondary income for the church. According to the report by the FAZ However, this will soon be over. The traffic light coalition is planning to end state payments to the two major churches.
According to the report, the state leaders are against the traffic light coalition’s plan. The main reason is the compensation that the states would have to pay. In the autumn, the specialist politicians of the traffic light coalition still want to present a draft law that could come into force without the approval of the Bundesrat. This would allow the coalition to circumvent the states’ rejection of the plan.
Traffic light coalition plans to end state benefits for the church – “fair framework for replacement”
The replacement is about the state’s mandate to cancel the current state benefits in return for compensation. The replacement is laid down in the Basic Law in conjunction with the Weimar Constitution. The traffic light government now wants to comply with this. The coalition agreement between the SPD, the Greens and the FDP therefore states that the traffic light government wants to create “a fair framework for the replacement of state benefits in a basic law in dialogue with the states and the churches”.
Money for the church: FDP, Greens and Left Party fail with draft law in the Bundestag in 2021
As early as 2021, a draft law by the FDP, the Left Party and the Greens was on the table that dealt with the “replacement of state benefits”. The draft proposed replacing state benefits within a certain period of time and paying 18.6 times the current annual amount to the churches. The draft was rejected in the Bundestag at the time.
The countries have also so far FAZ spoke out against the replacement. “The states are strictly against it,” reported one person familiar with the situation, adding: “And that means all of them without exception.” The replacement would be expensive for the states.
However, the traffic light coalition’s plan does not envisage “finally prescribing the form of replacement” to the states, Lars Castellucci, religious policy spokesman for the SPD parliamentary group, told the newspaper. The law should also not be subject to approval and therefore cannot be blocked in the Bundesrat.
CDU politician criticizes traffic light plan for church money
Rainer Robra, the head of the State Chancellery in Saxony-Anhalt, has criticized the planned draft of the traffic light coalition against this background. “It would be more appropriate for the German state structure to present a law that requires approval,” explained the head of the State Chancellery. The CDU politician has already announced: “The states will therefore examine the requirement for approval and, if necessary, object.”
Back in July, Castellucci had already declared that “also in view of the number of people leaving the church,” the state benefits “could become less and less justified in the long term.” At the time, the deputy leader of the Greens in the Bundestag, Konstantin von Notz, had called for a draft law “immediately.” “It is and remains in the interest of all those involved, the states as well as the churches, to finally fulfill the constitutional mandate after well over 100 years,” explained Notz.
Law on state benefits for churches: Traffic light coalition plans to abolish it for the first time
State payments to the churches date back to the beginning of the 19th century, when church property and territories were expropriated. This was the time when the state had the obligation to compensate the churches. With the exception of the city states of Hamburg and Bremen All federal states therefore pay state benefits to the churches. The Weimar Constitution of 1919 already stipulated that the benefits should be abolished. This shows how long this issue has not been addressed. The traffic light coalition is the first federal government that wants to tackle the replacement. (pav)
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