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A beer garden in Munich: less money at home

Photo: Ralph Peters / IMAGO

Bavaria is once again great - and yet Markus Söder is unlikely to be happy about it: around 18.3 billion euros were redistributed in Germany last year as part of the state financial equalization.

The depositors were Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg, Hesse, Hamburg and Rhineland-Palatinate.

The other eleven federal states received money from the pot.

This emerges from a template from the Federal Ministry of Finance, which the “Handelsblatt” reports on and which is also available to the dpa news agency.

In 2023, Bavaria paid in the most money, around 9.1 billion euros.

This was followed by Baden-Württemberg (around 4.5 billion euros) and Hesse (around 3.4 billion euros).

Hamburg gave around 934 million euros, Rhineland-Palatinate around 320 million euros.

Berlin remained the largest recipient country with around 3.8 billion euros, ahead of Saxony, which received around 3.4 billion euros.

The state financial equalization redistributes money between financially strong and financially weak countries and is intended to ensure almost equal living conditions in Germany.

The mechanism, which has been adapted several times, has attracted many complaints from countries over its long history.

Last year, the cabinet of Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Söder filed a constitutional complaint against the state financial equalization.

Bavaria needs “more money at home,” Söder announced three months before the state elections.

mic/dpa