The SPD in the Bavarian state parliament wants to limit the PR spending of the state chancellery of Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU). The Social Democrats submitted a corresponding motion for the budget discussions in the state parliament next week. According to current plans, the spending on PR and the Prime Minister’s self-promotion is 7.3 million euros – about a million more than in the previous budget. “At a time when every cent has to be turned over and many cities and municipalities even have to increase daycare fees, the Prime Minister wants to increase the money for his own self-promotion by more than a million euros,” criticized SPD parliamentary group leader Florian von Brunn. Instead of increasing PR spending, the money should be invested in public swimming pools.
Factual information about the state government’s policies is important and necessary for people, said von Brunn. “But I don’t think it’s information to send every 70-year-old in the state a birthday card at taxpayers’ expense – whether they want it or not,” stressed the SPD politician. Söder’s advertising budget ranges from the cost of photographers to sending greeting cards to expensive advertisements in daily newspapers. “That’s not information and it’s of no use to the people of Bavaria – it’s primarily for Markus Söder’s own career and his plans to run for chancellor.”