Hubert Markl, the president of the Max Planck Society (MPS), has warned Germany's federal and regional governments to expect fierce protests if they try to back down on a promise to increase the organization's budget for 2000 by five per cent. Finance ministers of the German Lander (states) recently proposed that this increase — which would cost DM95 million (US$51 million) next year — should be reduced to only two per cent, or DM38 million (see Nature 399,508; 1999). They say this is due to the continuing problems in the German economy and the need to cut back on public spending.
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