First, in Germany, governent does not “abolish basic welfare support”, as government has no such authority. Bundestag (parliament) passes laws, which government may propose. The federal budget is a law passed every year, outlining next year’s revenues and expenses. This article seems to discuss the federal budget. I should note: news about passing the budget is 1 month late, we read about it on November 28.
Also, this is quite a biased reading of this year’s federal budget. I would say it’s approximately 50% disinformation. Especially sentences like:
“These attacks on working people can only be understood in connection with the pro-war policy and Germany’s grasp for world power.”
Reality check: the neigbour of Germany’s neighbour is being invaded. War is occurring about 1000 km away and has the potential to arrive fast. Germany has been pursuing a policy of pacifism for decades. With the US, under Trump, showing disregard for international law and pressuring Ukraine instead of Russia, Germany has had a rude awakening and is indeed raising defense expenditure. Mostly by borrowing, because passing the bill directly to citizens would shock them.
The author, Marianne Arens, is from some small Troskyist political party. I’m not sure if she’s paid from Russia. She might be capable of writing in this style on her own. But I propose some more neutral sources:
Germany: the 2026 budget and rising debt
What Germany’s 2026 federal budget means for you
For general context, quoting from the first source:
The federal budget for 2026, adopted by the Bundestag, envisages expenditure of €524.5 billion – €21.5 billion more than in 2025 (see ‘Germany’s budget: increased investment and debt’) – made possible by further increases in borrowing, which will rise by €98 billion next year. As in previous years, the largest share is allocated to social welfare benefits (mainly pension subsidies), accounting for 38% of total expenditure.
Quoting from the second source:
A draft of Germany’s federal budget for 2026 was agreed on in the early hours of Thursday by the government’s budget committee.
The total planned expenditure stands at €524.5 billion, which is €4 billion more than initially anticipated.
New borrowing will reach nearly €98 billion in the core budget, with overall new debt – factoring in special funds for defence and infrastructure – exceeding €180 billion.
My comment: when a state needs more revenue, raising taxes in unpopular. It’s easier to borrow. Especially if the special circumstance (named “Putin”) can be imagined to go away after some time.
A significant feature is the increase in aid to Ukraine, which will rise by €3 billion to €11.5 billion. Other notable allocations include €800 million in subsidies for climate-friendly home heating, and €50 million to support home renovations for the elderly and disabled – although this is less generous than a popular federal program it replaces.
My comment: since Trump stopped supporting Ukraine, European counties are moving to replace the US in that field. This costs actual money. Very little money. COVID relief cost about 800 billion for Europe. Supporting Ukraine costs about 100 billion per year. Germany is a big contributor with 11.5 billion this year.
The draft budget was finalised in a “reconciliation meeting” (Bereinigungssitzung) in which government leaders negotiate remaining disputes and amendments to the draft budget before it’s presented to the German parliament (Bundestag) for the final parliamentary vote. According to German media reports, in this case the meeting dragged on for 15 hours.
This step, scheduled for a session to take place at the end of November, is widely seen as a formality because the black-red coalition has enough seats to pass the budget on their own.
What does the budget mean for you?
For residents in Germany, the most immediate impacts of the latest changes will be felt in mobility, long-term care contributions and heating costs.
Climate-friendly home heating subsidies
From next year, €800 million will be available to help homeowners, companies and municipalities switch to climate-friendly heating systems.
Subsidies can cover 30 percent to 70 percent of installation costs, with extra bonuses for installing efficient heat pumps, replacing old systems early, and also for lower-income households.
Applications must be made via the KfW portal and require a contract with a specialist heating company.
My comment: I guess the subsidies for switching over to ecologically sustainable heating are the “handouts to the rich”. Good grief.
Social care
In a last-minute decision, an additional loan of €1.7 billion was approved for long-term care insurance on top of the €1.5 billion already planned, with the aim of preventing any increase in contributions for nursing care and health insurance at the start of next year.
Chancellor Friedrich Merz told the press that these contributions would remain stable.
The measure is intended to provide immediate financial relief for people reliant on social care, addressing concerns about rising costs and ensuring continued support for vulnerable groups.
My comment: they are borrowing to avoid people having to pay more. Having to pay more is incredibly unpopular everywhere. I guess this is “slashing” social security.
The world socialist website promotes (false) anti-Western, pro-China, pro-Russia propaganda narratives only. This is part of disinformation network.
Please tell me what part of the claim “the german government almost unanimously agrees to defund welfare in favour of militarism” is disinformation. I guess to some people, anything remotely critical of Europe (including the dictatorship of neoliberalism) is disinformation
For starter, the fact that I can’t find anything related to that in any local (France), German, European, or international news outlet. The closest thing there is is a change in unemployement benefits, replaced by a stricter (but with similar monthly amount) model (https://www.iamexpat.de/career/employment-news/german-cabinet-agrees-replace-burgergeld-neue-grundsicherung). Added with the absolute lack of any external source from this post’s link, a bit of caution sounds reasonable.
The whole 'article" is staged as it misses the point as half of the truth is not even mentioned. I won’t discuss articles published by such sources. It’s outright sensationalist bullshit.
I have my differences with the WSWS but you could be more specific about this article in particular. What is the half of the truth not mentioned? What part of complaining about budget cuts to welfare is sensationalist?
Oof, you’re right. Thanks for the heads up, comrade
Our species isn’t going to survive very long if we don’t do something about the ultra rich
That’s what the ultra rich want. They want everyone else to die so the ultra rich will have the entire planet to themselves. There will no longer be overcrowding and all there will be no more pesky cockroach people scampering about ruining all the beautiful beaches.
Really? Who are they going to exploit when nobody is left? Who are they going to sell their shitty products to? Who are they going to lord over?
My point is: Just because they don’t care if you die, doesn’t mean they want everyone to die. They need people a lot more than regular people need them.
They believe they will build autonomous machines that will take care of them. What do you think the AI hype is all about?
This. Without regular people, they have nobody to exploit. They could exploit more robots, but robots don’t have the same needs as humans. They could program them to have the same needs, but then that would just be going back to square 1, because then they’d have to pay the robots so they could buy the things they need.
Almost like all of this exploitation & money hoarding crap is rooted in some kind of mental disorder…
Apparently you can just walk up to some of them on the street and have a chat.
Agreed, we should follow the steps of other actually existing socialist projects in order to get rid of the ultra rich in ways that have historically proven successful.
This is horrible, tragic news for Germany and it’s people. I hope the citizens of this country vote these people out of office before they allow their country to be destroyed.
There is not one party in Germany that you can vote that isn’t either neoliberal, Zionist, xenophobic or all of the above
How is Die Linke neoliberal, zionist, or xenophobic?
Well, it certainly had issues with pro-Palestine support:
https://www.newarab.com/news/left-wing-german-party-crisis-over-pro-palestine-support
Is weird… given…
https://politicalcompass.org/germany2025 .
I guess they’re not far enough to liberty and left to care.
[Edit: and so “requires building the Sozialistische Gleichheitspartei (Socialist Equality Party) and the Fourth International as the new revolutionary leadership of the working class.” does seem a common sentiment shared in many countries… and if pattern holds elsewhere, is being feigned as being built, and failing, I suspect, by agents, to get ahead of it and control the opposition. ~ Excuse me, I need to add more layers to my tin foil hat, just to be sure. ;D ]
That‘s not going to work. It‘s capitalism and here specifically the German economy in crisis, no significant tech or industry is left, that would still be relevant in the medium to long term.
Like the US they‘ve been counting on fossil fuels for far too long, are crashing their last big industry, automotive, because of it and are now escalating towards war economy in the hopes to claim new markets and keep the economy up. They’re already one of the main suppliers for Israel and Ukraine.
Rheinmetall is growing fast, forced labor was already being tested and is on the horizon for the jobless in general. All while the war ministers are drumming up public support for a preemptive war against Russia. The military is heavily supported and financed, while the social infrastructure is being systematically destroyed. Propaganda is in full swing and dissenting voices (journalists, press) are being sanctioned with very questionable reasoning. Once war is imminent or already on, people will be forced to work for companies such as VW, only then to build stuff for the war machine. Fascism is knocking, German imperial ambitions are back.
Meanwhile, all major parliamentary parties are in on the war frenzy, even the left (die Linke) to an extend, but CDU (conservatives), SPD (social democrats), AfD (far rights, potentially part of the next goverment) and even Grüne (neo-libs with a green tint, lately olive) have morphed into full on war and repression maniacs seeking confrontation.
Arbeiter, hörst du es nicht?
I love how you frame Germany preparing to defend Europe as such a negative. I mean, we should just quietly die to Russian tanks without preparing to should we?
That‘s just not the reality. The motivation for an outright confrontation is Europe‘s.
Germany defending Europe. Lol! Sure that‘s a perspective some people had back in the thirties.
This is such a shitty take on reality, after the remains of a failed empire that are called russia have begun a war against Europe years ago. With troops on the ground in Ukraine, with sabotage, murders and informational warfare elsewhere in Europe.
Also throwing Israel and Ukraine in one bag while Israel, like Russia, is clearly the agressor, committing horrible war crimes, is a fucking joke.
Go away, tankie.
Who started it is a little more nuanced.
For a mere start, the UN’s breaches of the treaty that was keeping the peace, provoked russia with existential threats. Which of course, they responded to, eventually. Some say “crazy” (I think without knowing why, so of course it looked crazy to them). Some say quite conservatively, like the only adults in the room. Truth may be somewhere both between, and off to another side entirely.
Though I wish you all the very best of luck finding balanced reporting on that, covering (or even touching on, with even a mere mention of) the deeper causal contexts of that. Let alone to the PNAC [(more on that in a bit ~ it’s not just the “invade 7 countries in 5 years” as originally posed)] and the deeper plans of which the PNAC plans sits in as merely one small (or large) part. E.g. even just starting starting from https://search.brave.com/search?q=2014+donbas | https://yandex.com/search/?text=donbas+2014 and what precipitated it.
It gets more interesting yet when considering the leaders of both sides are all in the same club, with the same shared interests and priorities, where the “war” as presented is just a cover, to throw more “ordinary people” (ordinance, cannon fodder) into the meat grinder, to eliminate the main threat they share, which is not other nations, but the people everywhere rising up against government and leaders.
Then it gets even more interesting yet where it gets even murkier at the “top”. Delving into the confounding uncertainties of skinsuits, clones, robots, deep fakes, and the banking system (BIS and beyond), the secret societies network, thinktanks, and “intelligence” networks and “beyond black” ops…
- (and, not to mention the aliens and/or aliens psyop (~ looped back into the PNAC’s side ploys of contingency plans (the fake terrorism scam, the fake pandemic scam, the fake nuclear war scam, and the final one, the fake alien invasion scam ~ and with fake economic collapse scams and fake climate disaster scams (using weather manipulation (warfare) technology) as side dishes along the way)) for mass distraction and problem-reaction-solution to further have us eagerly give away our power to them, to protect us).
The first casualty of war… is the truth.
Listen to those who seek the truth.
Run from those who claim to have found it.
(Then why didn’t I run? These three lines from Akira sum it up nicely: “It must be a trap.” “Then why are you still going?!” “I want to find out what kind of a trap it is.”)
Thanks, I prefer my shitty take over your scrubby narrative rehash without actual grounding in reality. Not sure how it helps calling everyone with dissenting perspectives a tankie makes any sense. Surely only, if you’re actively trying to remain ignorant and keep your indoctrinated mind at ease.
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This always turns out well.
one of those times where the /s is necessary
I don’t fully understand German politics. But in the past decade, I’ve yet to see right wing movements bring lasting positive change to any angry or discontented country
You say that as if any right wing movement had ever brought positive change, however short lasted.
I fully agree with you, but just curious: what’s your opinion on the Taiwanese and South Korean governments between the 1950s and the 1990s?
Not sure if you can equate their governments to modern right wing movements. I think they would be more centrist economically and leftest socially on the modern scale, while being more right with politically until much later.
Its also worth noting they had massive US aid assistance to drive infrastructure investment and social programs for the first few decades.
Soothing anger isnt their goal. Anger is just a tool they use to get what the want.
I’ve yet to see right wing movements bring lasting positive change to any angry or discontented country
Because that’s not the point. The point is to enrich the wealthy few.
Lest we forget: “Right-wing” stems from “right-hand man”, i.e. a monarch’s
yes-manmost trusted advisor.To be fair, in 2025 it’s hard to point at any movement that achieved that, left or right wing.
There haven’t been many left wing movements in 2025.
Which, on its own, is rather troublesome… To put it mildly…
Sounds like they’re turning into America
We talk a lot about the failure of the American experiment but it seems that Europe’s experiment with social supports is also failing.
Their experiment isn’t failing, people are voting in people who are actively trying to make it fail
That’s how change occurs at the government level and so that is absolutely failing. If you can’t muster sufficient support to carry your agenda out and you get overwhelmed by challengers, that’s failing. If your agenda needs perfect conditions to succeed, it’s a fairyland dream.
This same thing is all that’s happened to the US as well.
Moreover, social programs across Europe are struggling to remain solvent in the face of aging populations and shrinking workforces. Even when the will is there.
Fuck fElon Musk.
I agree. Never blame the electorate, blame the politicians for not delivering better policy.
2026 is going to be so much worse than 2025. Awful.
murica, llc is a warning to the world… that buffoon has inside info and can’t wait to brag about it. Just in the last couple days, he uttered “we’re going to be employing a lot of artificial things” which is an admission that the sentiment in this article is the driving force for what will become internment of the poor in the next few years. Germany is just following suit in the classist positioning before it really hits the fan.
If individualism weren’t the default for the human mind, we may stand a chance. It’s going to take a lot of suffering to pierce that issue though.
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Is it? Why? Thr word paradise was, let’s say CHARGED, but lots of low skilled immigrants are absolutely flooding Germany looking for benefits right now.
let’s say CHARGED
The commenter called immigrants “parasites”. Let’s not say “charged” mate, let’s say “bigoted”, “racist”, “xenophobic”… “Charged” is a very very very generous thing to call it.
This whole narrative of immigrants “flooding” countries looking for benefits is mad. I hear it all over the world. It’s just not the case. People work hard, whether they’re “low-skilled” (whatever that means) or not, and are not likely to uproot their lives and potentially families to try and head to countries just to try and sponge and scrounge off the system there.
The implication of what you’re saying is, to me, that people are coming into Germany and intentionally trying not to work, instead trying to get money for nothing and sponge off the system. Is that what you’re suggesting?
Ah yes, a racist shithole with a crappy culture, a crappy language, and a fucking average age close to what used to be retirement.
Grundsicherung is a mere 550e, no one lives nicely on that.
less reason for parasites to stay.
Should have gone against the tax handouts for the wealthy then.
It’s funny how when a government tends to focus on making life easier for the rich, it also seems to focus on making the poor more dependent on them instead of being able to have their own social nets to stand on. Oh wait, I meant to say expected.
^^ Things that don’t get you banned from .world
Go for it, ban reality itself.
Your alternate reality for sure
