For 2024, spending on German welfare, also known as “citizens’ money,” reached a record high of €46.7 billion, a massive 10 percent increase versus 2023, according to figures provided by the Federal Employment Agency (BA).

The CDU’s General Secretary, Carsten Linnemann, is warning against this trend. “Once again, it shows how urgently this citizen’s allowance needs to be abolished.” He said the new government, which his party will lead, will “tackle this quickly.”

Yet, his CDU party plays a large role in why these costs are rising so sharply. After his party’s former chancellor, Angela Merkel, set the stage for mass immigration by allowing over 1 million migrants to enter the country from 2015 to 2016, many of these migrants remain on welfare. In fact, half of all recipients of this welfare money.

As Remix News previously wrote, overall, 62.6 percent of all welfare recipients are migrants, and within the 15 to 25 age group, this number goes up to 71.3 percent.

A coalition agreement has not yet been finalized, but draft versions have a number of strategies to deal with these costs, according to Welt.

The citizens’ money should be transformed “into a new basic security for job seekers,” which will focus on getting welfare recipients into jobs, and sanctions will be tightened for those who fail to comply. In some cases, there could be a “complete withdrawal of benefits.

Pensions, long-term care benefits, and social benefits now make up nearly 50 percent of the German budget, a new historical first. This has led to significant strains on the German budget.

Overall, migrants cost Germany nearly €50 billion a year in direct costs.