Budget speech: CDU

Dear Mr Mayor
Dear department heads and employees of the administration,
Dear colleagues on the Bocholt City Council,
Dear members of the audience,

At today's meeting, we will be adopting the City of Bocholt's dual budget for 2025 and 2026. The budget for 2025 envisages a deficit of around EUR 33 million in the profit plan, the budget for 2026 of around EUR 35 million. These deficits are alarming; Bocholt is no different to most other municipalities. Cities and municipalities in Germany increasingly have to cope with social demands for which they are inadequately funded by the upstream federal and state levels.

Examples include the statutory entitlement to a place in a day care centre and the entitlement to open all-day schools. Both of these are good requirements from the federal and state governments, but the costs have to be borne to a large extent by the local authorities. In addition, there are constantly increasing bureaucratic and organisational requirements; housing benefit and refugee accommodation are just two of many examples. It is no coincidence that the German Association of Towns and Municipalities is calling for a moratorium on the transfer of new tasks to local authorities so as not to further exacerbate their financial overload.

The fact is that we need tangible changes in many policy areas, but especially in economic and migration policy. We as the CDU are optimistic that a change in policy can be initiated after the federal elections on Sunday. In addition to very concrete measures, a change in mindset is also necessary: away from state paternalism and towards more personal responsibility.

The fact that the city of Bocholt has always managed to generate a positive annual result since 2020 after negative planning gives us cause for cautious optimism. This is largely thanks to our strong SME sector, creative and committed entrepreneurs with well-trained and hard-working employees who make a major contribution to ensuring that we can all together make our beautiful home town of Bocholt more attractive and liveable every day.

For us as the CDU, supporting the local economy is one of the cornerstones of our policy in the knowledge that we can only spend what we have earned.

We were also able to see that the administration team paid attention to economic efficiency and cost awareness and that savings were achieved in many areas compared to the original plan despite high inflationary pressure. But: there is more to be done. The administration has planned a budget and also jobs in this budget to streamline and digitalise processes. We will be closely supporting them in this endeavour. In addition to the budget situation, the demographic trend of retiring baby boomers means that we will have to achieve the same output with fewer employees in the future.

Politically, this budget is a team effort. We have made many compromises in order to develop a broadly supported working basis for the administration. For the CDU, however, it is important that this budget takes into account the core of our policy despite all the compromises made.

An essential component of our policy is the strengthening of personal responsibility and civic commitment. In recent years, the city of Bocholt has supported many sports and cultural organisations with infrastructure projects. The principle of helping people to help themselves applies here. For example, important investments have been made in the sports infrastructure of popular sports such as the open-air hall at TUB Bocholt, the multi-purpose hall at DJK Liedern, the modernisation of the sports fields at Tub Mussum and Borussia Bocholt, as well as high-profile top-class sports such as the floodlight system at Hünting, to name just a few examples. This budget focuses on the relocation of the DJK Barlo sports ground and the barrier-free conversion and extension of the clubhouse in Mussum.

A great example of civic commitment is the project for a new artificial turf pitch for Sportfreunde Lowick, who have mastered this feat without a municipal subsidy using only their own funds and donations from the club. Chapeau! All these sports and cultural clubs have one thing in common: they create social cohesion and promote integration. We as the CDU have great respect for the achievements of many citizens and would like to thank all those who volunteer in clubs.

Voluntary work also forms the core of many supporting organisations in the social sector. The ambitious childcare requirements imposed on local authorities, including Bocholt, could not be met without organisations such as church communities, Caritas, AWO, DRK, Jusina and other associations. We would like to thank all investors and funding organisations for their commitment, as well as the childcare workers for their daily dedication to our youngest children.

A major focus of the budget is investment in the infrastructure of our schools. In the medium term, we will invest over EUR 200 million in the renovation, expansion and refurbishment of our school buildings. We are grateful that after intensive preparatory work by the administration and consultation with teachers, parents and pupils, the new buildings for the Euregio-Gymnasium and the Maria Montessori School are now being realised. In the case of the Euregio-Gymnasium in particular, the question was often asked: "Why is it taking so long? But with a project of this size, it is important that everyone involved is included in the plans so that a sustainable, good solution can be developed. Important investments are also planned, such as the refurbishment or extension of the Mariengymnasium, the Clemens-Dülmer School and the comprehensive school, to name just a few examples.

The digitalisation of schools is another important project in which we have made significant progress in recent years. Pupils at secondary schools are now provided with their own or loaned devices, depending on pupil and parent wishes. In recent years, over 6,000 mobile devices have been procured, which will gradually have to be replaced over the next few years. However, this area is also a prime example of a dilemma in our federal system: pupils are now provided with devices, but some teachers use their private devices. However, the state is responsible for the teachers. Across all party lines, we have asked ourselves whether it makes sense for teachers not to be equipped if pupils are to work with iPads.

On the subject of infrastructure, please allow me to make a comment on the town hall. We know that the town hall is an unpopular project with many citizens. After the schools, the town hall is an important building block for investment in the coming years. The town hall is the municipal theatre, the town hall is the citizens' meeting centre, the town hall is the seat of the administration and the council. In addition, the town hall is also an architectural work of national importance. You all know the figures. Despite all the challenges, the speedy implementation of the planned refurbishment of the town hall is ultimately the most economically favourable and best solution in terms of content. Anyone who claims that costs could be saved by converting the town hall into a pure cultural centre or by abandoning the extension and at the same time losing the higher funding is not making the right calculations. We therefore now expect the administration to ensure that the refurbishment, which was approved here by a large majority, is now concentrated and implemented quickly with a new architect.

When we talk about infrastructure, one project must not be forgotten: Kubaai. Many older people with a good memory can still hear the warning cries of many that Bocholt would slide into budget protection because of this project. This project was discussed a few years ago in a similar way to the current town hall and was labelled with undifferentiated devaluations such as "million grave". In fact, the costs have risen in the course of the project compared to the original planning. However, it is also a fact that clever urban planning and the investment of tens of millions of euros have created a new neighbourhood from industrial wasteland. The persistence of the CDU and those political rivals who supported the project has paid off. Today, even the opponents from back then hurry to have their photo taken in front of the attractive Podium Bridge or the Lernwerk. When the project is completed, we will have a new, attractive neighbourhood with architectural beacons such as the Podium Bridge, Lernwerk and LWL Museum. We will also relieve Bocholt's tight housing market in this neighbourhood with well over 500 new flats, many of which will be social housing.

City centre development is an important issue for the CDU. The economic trend towards digital shopping and the shortage of staff and skilled workers, particularly in the catering sector, pose major challenges not only for Bocholt's city centre. Over the past two years, concepts have been developed in Bocholt to shape the necessary transformation from a retail centre to an attractive place to visit with retail, services, gastronomy, culture and beautiful squares. We have set aside a lot of funds in the budget to realise this transformation. The realisation of the planned Markt 8 project, including Manes-Schlatt-Platz, offers a great long-term opportunity. There are further central development opportunities at Gasthausplatz, St. Georgs-Platz and Ravardistraße. We will examine and find ways to make squares more attractive by unsealing and greening them. We cannot override the general economic developments, but we want to continuously develop the attractiveness of our city centre under the given circumstances.

An important political concern of the CDU is the consistent implementation of Bocholt's mobility concept. Stadtbus Bocholt, for example, has significantly extended journey times in recent years at considerable expense. But buses also travel on roads. At this point, we are clearly committed to the Nordring and, like many Bocholters, are impatient for this project to be realised as quickly as possible. In Bocholt, we have thousands of journeys every day on various shortcuts via roads that are simply not intended for this purpose. In addition, the relief of many city centre streets through the Nordring would also benefit the punctuality and timing of buses.

But the legal obstacles and requirements for roads in Germany are enormous. In this respect, we are delighted that the mayor and the city planning authority were recently able to announce a further step towards realisation. As a result, Nabu has publicly announced that it will take legal action. I don't want to be misunderstood: many citizens are involved in Nabu on a voluntary basis and we greatly appreciate this commitment - but democracy and the rule of law are being turned upside down here. The minority is trying to impose its will on the majority by legal means. Not every legal action that is legally possible is also sensible and legitimate!

The same applies to the Edeka Lowick project. The project is being blocked by nature conservationists with all legally possible steps. Alternatives are being demanded, but these would mean nothing other than the economic impossibility of this store. This has 2 main results: Firstly, the people of Lowick feel that they are being controlled by others and secondly, they travel by car to markets in other parts of Bocholt or even in other towns. From our point of view, the situation could be significantly improved with good will in terms of the climate and the quality of life of the Lowickers. The climate was also helped by the fact that, at our request, BEW planted almost 12,000 seedlings of various tree species on around 4 hectares at the Liedern waterworks last year.

We are currently in the middle of the parliamentary election campaign, with the local election campaign to follow. We are looking forward to this election campaign and are very well positioned with Thomas Kerkhoff as an excellent candidate for mayor, with good concepts and an outstanding team of council candidates.

At this point, however, I would also like to praise our competitors in this House and thank them. We as the CDU have worked together with the Free Democrats, Social Democrats and the Greens to develop and adopt concepts and proposals. The different ideas of the parliamentary groups have been taken into account. The opponents of democracy will dismiss the answers that have been worked out as compromises of the lowest common denominator. However, we believe that many members of this House have worked together in a constructive, creative and focussed manner to find good solutions for our beloved home town.

We as the CDU will vote in favour of this budget. Thanks to the good results of recent years, we have sufficient equalisation reserves for the coming years to be able to decide on a reliable planning and working basis for politics and administration even in the event of negative budgets. The measures listed in this budget will further strengthen our city and improve the quality of life.

Finally, on behalf of the parliamentary group, I would like to thank all the employees of the administration for their work over the past year.

Thank you for your attention.