Saxony's Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer supports changes to the citizen's income - also for Ukrainians.

The CDU politician said on ZDF's Morning Magazine that the rules must be changed for "our own people, for the Germans, as well as for those who have come to us," so that performance is rewarded. Germany spends €47 billion on citizen's income. "I think everyone realizes that this can't be right. This number must come down."

One must ask what the state is spending the money on, said Kretschmer. There are many examples of people who receive money but don't actually need it. "And this applies, of course, especially to those seeking protection, because with Ukrainian refugees we can compare it to France, the Netherlands, Poland, and the Czech Republic. Everywhere there, the proportion of people who work is much, much higher than here."

Previously, Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) had advocated a tougher approach. In a summer interview with ZDF on Sunday, he said he was in favor of Ukrainians living in Germany no longer receiving citizen's income, "and ideally not just those who come in the future, but all of them."