NRW municipalities drive to Berlin with blue lights, demanding immediate aid

Among the participants from NRW is Duisburg's Mayor Sören Link. Mönchengladbach's City Treasurer Michael Heck is also taking part in the protest drive. The vehicles – including garbage trucks, fire engines, buses, and vehicles from the public order offices – are to roll through the government district with blue lights on Tuesday morning. Stops are planned at the Bundestag, the Chancellery, and the Federal Ministry of Finance.

Background: Debt and funding gap

The background to the action is the precarious budgetary situation of many cities. According to calculations by the NRW State Statistical Office, Mülheim an der Ruhr tops the list in the state with per capita debt of around 10,700 euros. Nationwide, municipalities were short of approximately 32 billion euros last year, according to their own figures.

Federal-state resolution: Whoever orders, pays

The action alliance is therefore demanding immediate aid from the federal government. Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) and the minister-presidents agreed at the end of June during the Minister-Presidents' Conference on a reform to relieve the municipalities. Accordingly, the principle "Wer bestellt, bezahlt" (Whoever orders, pays) is to apply in the future: If additional costs for the states and municipalities together exceed 200 million euros, the federal government will cover 80 percent starting in September.

The alliance regards the resolutions as an important step in the right direction, but does not see them as a solution to the acute emergency. Representatives stated shortly before the departure in Düsseldorf that the new regulation reduces future burdens but cannot offset the current deficit. Above all, structurally weak cities with low tax revenues and high social spending are affected.

Symbolism of the blue-light vehicles

Recently, the federal government has regularly passed laws that often trigger additional expenses for municipalities, against which they can hardly defend themselves. The protest drive is intended to increase pressure on federal policymakers to provide additional funds at short notice. The action was picked up, among other things, by a press release from the action alliance and by a dpa report, and was featured on July 6, 2026 in the WDR 2 format "Lokalzeit Rhein und Ruhr."

In Berlin's government district, the participants want to draw attention to their concerns in a directly visible way on Tuesday. The blue-light vehicles are intended to symbolically illustrate that municipalities can fulfill their tasks – from the fire service to garbage collection to the public order office – only under the most difficult conditions.