"I see this welcome news as a great success," says Lord Mayor Frank Klingebiel. "With this, the state of Lower Saxony is expressly rewarding our own further consolidation efforts, which were included in the double budget for the financial years 2023/2024 adopted by the council in the summer."

The needs-based allocation serves to balance the budget, strengthen cash liquidity and partially reduce deficits. These are special funds that the state can provide to particularly financially weak municipalities upon application in order to strengthen their threatened financial situation.

Mayor Klingebiel: "The renewed allocation of the 18 million euros in needs-based grants for two years confirms that the Lower Saxony Ministry of the Interior recognizes the extraordinary situation, the special need and the city's own ongoing consolidation efforts."

"It was quite a feat," continued Klingebiel, "to convince the Ministry of the unique challenges that the city of Salzgitter has to overcome."

"In addition to many currently positive processes such as the development of the hydrogen campus, the construction of a battery plant by Volkswagen AG and the pleasing further development of Salzgitter AG towards the production of steel using renewable energies (SALCOS), Salzgitter is also facing multiple problems that place severe limits on its financial scope. However, school and daycare center construction, integration work and valuable social projects are absolutely essential for maintaining social peace in our city and must also be financed," said the Lord Mayor.

The Lord Mayor and Stefan Klein, member of the state parliament, were ultimately able to convince the Minister of the Interior, Daniela Behrens, of this through fruitful discussions.

In his conclusion, Klingebiel states: "The needs-based allocations now awarded totaling 18 million euros will help the city of Salzgitter to continue to work shoulder to shoulder with the state of Lower Saxony to tackle the enormous tasks such as the integration of refugees, the structural change in the city and the local efforts to secure social peace".