Of
Andrew Glass
When Ulrike Scharf (CSU) makes her first government statement as Minister for Social Affairs this Tuesday, she will probably not skimp on superlatives. Lowest unemployment rate of all federal states (2021: 3.5 percent), highest employment rate (2019: 79.9 percent), nowhere else in Germany are fewer people claiming minimum income (2020: 4.5 percent). These are some of the findings of the Bavarian social report, which the state government is presenting again for the first time in five years. The paper is also scheduled to be presented on Tuesday, the Süddeutsche Zeitung content is already available. So everything is fine in the Free State? “So far, Bavaria has coped well with the crisis,” says Scharf. “But,” she also says, “people’s concerns are growing.”