Rheinland-Pfalz Lawmakers Reject Bid to Cap Paid Leave for Senior Officials
Published on 10/28/2026 at 19:40 | Editorial boerse-global.de
A push to stop senior civil servants in Rhineland-Palatinate from collecting a salary while on extended leave — and building up pension rights at the same time — has failed in the state parliament in Mainz. The AfD parliamentary group's motion, titled "Time limits on leave in other cases within the meaning of § 32 UrlVO and introduction of standard examples," did not win a majority in the plenary session, as media outlets reported unanimously on 28 October 2026.
What the rejected motion proposed
The initiative sought sweeping restrictions on existing leave practice in the state service. Specifically, it called for a ban on special leave for party-political work.
It also proposed capping leave for lucrative managing-director posts at a maximum of two years. Another core element would have stopped pension entitlements from continuing to grow during special leave.
During the debate, AfD lawmaker Frank Senger attacked Minister-President Gordon Schnieder of the CDU, accusing the head of government of forgetting an earlier campaign promise. Senger focused on the ongoing rise in pension entitlements for officials on leave, cited a legal opinion by former Federal Constitutional Court judge Udo Di Fabio, and demanded binding time limits.
SPD parliamentary group manager Florian Maier rejected the calls for fixed upper limits. Rigid deadlines were not effective, he argued, and instead backed case-by-case decisions.
Government position and past practice
Speaking for the CDU group, its manager Dennis Junk stressed that the state chancellery no longer approves new special leave and would be judged on that practice. Schnieder had already announced during the election campaign that he would end the existing procedure; the chancellery made clear, however, that this pledge applied only to future new applications. In response to an AfD inquiry, the CDU-led state government had already said in August that it did not intend to change the leave ordinance in law.
The parliamentary clash has its roots in how previous years were handled. Under the earlier SPD-led state government, senior officials were able to take leave for up to twelve years while their pension entitlements kept growing. A high-ranking SPD official remains on special leave at present, drawing a monthly basic salary of more than 24,000 euros.
Legal doubts and criticism from institutions
The leave arrangements have long stirred significant debate among supervisory bodies and associations in Rhineland-Palatinate. The state audit office had already classified special leave for state secretaries as a clear breach of the law in 2022.
Legal scholarship has raised firm objections as well: constitutional law expert Ulrich Battis also considers the special leave unlawful. The taxpayers' association, for its part, criticised the continuing burden on the state budget and described it as a waste of taxpayers' money.
