Magdeburg (dpa/sa) - Saxony-Anhalt wants to reiterate its demand for consistent further development and strengthening of civil defense and disaster control at the Interior Ministers' Conference (IMK). Interior Minister Tamara Zieschang (CDU) demanded that the federal government must provide around ten billion euros within the next ten years for a civil protection package. At the same time, the federal government's special funding program Sirenen, which expires at the end of the year, must be continued.
The chairman of the IMK, Bavaria's department head Joachim Herrmann (CSU), had previously emphasized the demand for significantly more money for civil protection. The federal states had already asked the federal government for a strengthening pact in the spring. The demand will be renewed at the IMK in Munich, which begins on Wednesday. Herrmann emphasized that the financial cuts planned in the federal budget for 2023, for example for the Technical Relief Agency (THW) and the Federal Office for Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance, are not compatible with the restart for civil protection announced by the Federal Ministry of the Interior.
Saxony-Anhalt's Minister of the Interior Zieschang explained further: "With a view to critical infrastructure, federal regulations are required so that operators of critical infrastructure can also be specifically obliged to take precautionary measures in the future."
And: In order to significantly improve the ability to react in complex crisis situations, the cross-state and cross-departmental crisis management exercises would also have to be intensified. In the future, they should take place at least every two years, the minister demanded. According to the information, the last exercise was in 2018 and before that in 2013.
