Nearly \u20ac5.8 million ($6.4 million) has been spent on office furnishings and decorations, according to the German Taxpayers Association<\/p>\n
The German Taxpayers Association has slammed the federal government for spending millions of euros on office furnishings and decorations while urging ordinary citizens to tighten their belts.
\nChancellor Friedrich Merz\u2019s ruling coalition has prioritized a massive military buildup and continued aid to Ukraine while pursuing cuts to social spending, despite growing public dissatisfaction with the government.
\n\u201cApparently, there is no fiscal room to provide relief for citizens, yet when it comes to the government\u2019s own apparatus, the purse strings are remarkably loose \u2013 for decorations and the like!\u201d association president Reiner Holznagel told the Neue Osnabrucker Zeitung (NOZ) on Wednesday.
\n\u201cThis is impossible to justify to taxpayers,\u201d he added.
\nHolznagel urged lawmakers to scrutinize the spending, arguing that politicians demanding austerity from the public should first demonstrate restraint themselves.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThe Budget Committee can now show how serious policymakers really are about saving money,\u201d he said.
\nThe expenditures were revealed in a government response to a parliamentary inquiry submitted by the opposition Alternative for Germany (AfD) party. The 16 federal ministries spent approximately \u20ac5.8 million ($6.4 million) on furnishings and decorations between May 2025, when Merz took office, and mid-October 2026.
\nAccording to NOZ, the Foreign Ministry topped the list with roughly \u20ac840,000 in purchases, followed by the Defense Ministry at \u20ac813,000. The Finance Ministry spent more than \u20ac500,000, including over \u20ac45,000 on decorations alone.<\/p>\n
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The purchases included furniture, lamps, carpets, curtains, paintings, sculptures and ornamental plants.
\nThe revelations come as Berlin warns Germans to prepare for further belt-tightening. Thorsten Frei, a senior figure in Merz\u2019s CDU\/CSU bloc, confirmed to Bild last week that citizens would have to become more frugal.
\nAt the same time, Merz has pledged to turn the Bundeswehr into Europe\u2019s strongest conventional military force, citing what he describes as a growing Russian threat. Berlin has also emerged as Kiev\u2019s largest individual military donor following Washington\u2019s sharp reduction in aid under US President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n
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European leaders are \u2018political masochists\u2019 \u2013 Lavrov<\/p>\n
The military buildup has proceeded despite Merz\u2019s acknowledgment that Germany faces a \u201cstructural crisis.\u201d His government approved a 2026 budget allocating a record \u20ac108.2 billion to defense and approximately \u20ac11.5 billion in military aid to Ukraine, after constitutional borrowing restrictions were relaxed to facilitate higher spending.
\nMerz\u2019s military ambitions have coincided with plunging public support, with his approval rating falling to a record low of just 10% last month.
\nMoscow has repeatedly dismissed claims that Russia intends to attack NATO as \u201cnonsense,\u201d accusing European leaders of exaggerating the threat to justify soaring military budgets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Nearly \u20ac5.8 million ($6.4 million) has been spent on office furnishings and decorations, according to the German Taxpayers Association The German Taxpayers Association has slammed the federal government for spending…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":41046,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41045","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","category-environment","category-politics"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t