A large majority of Germans think their country’s welfare state cannot be upheld financially in its current form.
According to a survey published today by pollster Forsa for broadcaster RTL, 64 per cent of the more than 1,000 respondents think the German welfare utopia is not financially viable. Only 34 per cent believe otherwise. The remainder did not reply.
The biggest sceptics can be found among the voters of the right-wing Alternative for Germany party (AfD), 84 per cent of which think the welfare state is unsustainable. They are closely followed by the followers of German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) with 79 per cent.
A slight majority of the voters of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) are also welfare state sceptics (58 per cent).
Only on the far-left does belief in the future Germany’s generous government handouts seem indestructible. Some 57 per cent of Greens party voters and 66 per cent of the voters of hard-left Die Linke party say they do not see any fundamental financial issues.
Merz had said in August 2025: “The welfare state we have today cannot be financed anymore with what we produce as an economy.”
His comments were meant to whip up popular support for his widely announced intentions to reform and streamline Germany’s welfare system, especially the expensive and performance-inhibiting Bürgergeld (citizen’s stipend) system of unemployment benefits.
The envisaged “autumn of reform”, though, fizzled out fast as Merz’s coalition partner, the SDP, blockaded even timid attempts at cutting benefits.
At a SPD conference on February 8, its leader Bärbel Bas reiterated her opposition to the CDU’s suggestions for making the welfare state more sustainable.
“Abolishing the right to call in sick on the phone, abolishing the right to work part-time, abolishing the coverage of dentist costs, all that is a wrecking-ball for workers’ rights,” Bas told the audience.
The SPD has advocated to increase taxes to keep financing the welfare state rather than cut benefits.
Business representatives are now increasingly critical of Merz’s inability to push through reforms.
Yesterday, the business association BVMW – which counts almost 30,000 small and medium enterprises among its members – sent an open letter to Merz, expressing their members’ growing disillusionment: “German entrepreneurs have looked forward with great hope to the change of government and the economic turnaround you announced. Less than nine months after your election as Chancellor, this euphoria has given way to sheer horror at the development of Germany as a business location.”
