Hundreds of thousands of people leave the church every year, but the churches still receive millions from the state. The traffic light coalition wants to put an end to this, but Bavaria and other states are against it.
Munich – The Bavarian state government has strongly criticised plans by the traffic light coalition to end state payments to the churches. The coalition wants to force a law on the states with a brute force, the budgetary dimensions of which would burden the states for decades, said State Chancellery Chief Florian Herrmann of the German Press Agency.
“Such a pharisaical plan not only puts the axe to the cultural sovereignty of the states, but also to everything that makes the churches a pillar of our social system, such as kindergartens, clinics or old people’s homes,” said Herrmann. Apparently, the traffic light coalition wants to push through its socio-political agenda “in the final meters of its existence”.
Traffic light coalition plans to abolish state payments to churches
The churches in Germany receive state payments for the expropriation of German churches and monasteries at the beginning of the 19th century as part of the secularization. Except for Hamburg and Bremen All federal states therefore pay an annual sum to the Catholic and Protestant churches. Most recently, the total nationwide was around 550 million euros per year. According to the budget, Bavaria will pay 80 million euros for the Catholic church and 26 million for the Protestant church – plus building costs of 28 million euros for both denominations, as the Ministry of Culture announced in response to a dpa query.
The traffic light coalition wants to present a draft law for the long-term abolition of state payments to the churches in the autumn, although the federal states reject the project. The reform is to be designed in such a way that the Bundesrat does not have to agree. “The blocking attitude of the states unfortunately forces the coalition to go down this path,” said FDP politician Sandra Bubendorfer-Licht.
Tax money for churches: Traffic light government aims to separate church and state
Because the money comes from tax revenue and therefore from all taxpayers, even those who do not belong to a religious community have to pay. This group is growing from year to year, with hundreds of thousands leaving the church every year. The traffic light government therefore wants to pay the churches out and thus separate church and state. However, the states would probably have to raise the compensation – and there is clear resistance here.
Lower Saxony’s Prime Minister Stephan Weil (SPD) had already stressed that the states were “very united” in their rejection. “I can only advise against pursuing these plans,” he told the New Osnabrück NewspaperThe budget situation in many federal states is so strained that compensation payments to the churches are simply not possible in the foreseeable future. (dpa/jal)
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