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Mainz (dpa / lrs) - Immediately before the state elections in Rhineland-Palatinate, CDU challenger Christian Baldauf accused the state government of repeated legal violations.
"The state government is a permanent guest at the court," said Baldauf on Thursday evening in a television debate of the top candidates in the SWR.
He held against Prime Minister Malu Dreyer (SPD) for having allowed “one of the greatest scandals of all” in the case of promotions to ministries.
And the state government was guilty of breaching the constitution in the municipal financial equalization scheme.
"We take the judgment very seriously," replied Dreyer, who described the decision of the Koblenz judges in December as bitter.
"We will now completely rebuild the municipal financial equalization according to the criteria of the Constitutional Court," said the head of government and promised: "We have to put the finances of the municipalities on a new footing."
As the district administrator of the Eifel district Bitburg-Prüm, the top candidate of the free voters, Joachim Streit, said: "The municipalities are suffering."
The mere fact that half of the communities in his district are looking for help from the local debt relief fund shows that there is an urgent need for action.
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As the successor to Environment Minister Ulrike Höfken (Greens), who announced her resignation because of the promotion affair, the green top candidate Anne Spiegel said that the errors had been rectified.
"We have taken steps since the beginning of January to put everything on a solid basis."
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210311-99-786527 / 2
SWR top round for the state election in Rhineland-Palatinate