The struggle over the millions in payments from the city of Potsdam to the Palace Foundation and the impending compulsory entry into Sanssouci Park is coming to a head. Against the recommendation of Mayor Mike Schubert (SPD), the main committee of the city council voted on Wednesday evening not to decide on these payments for the time being. With Schubert, only the SPD and the Greens voted, all other factions voted against. Therefore, the money can no longer be included in the planned double budget, said Schubert. Doing that afterwards will be difficult.
Actually, the city councilors should have decided on January 25th. However, recently there was no longer a majority for further payments. The sponsors of the foundation – i.e. the states of Berlin and Brandenburg as well as the federal government – had threatened that if Potsdam stopped paying from 2024, they wanted to introduce a park entrance fee for Sanssouci in order to ensure the maintenance of the World Heritage site. The main committee argued about the legal question of whether in such a case the people of Potsdam could be exempted from the obligation to enter.
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