As keynote speaker at the Political Ash Wednesday of the Gütersloh district employers, Michael Thöne discusses the growing challenges North Rhine-Westphalian municipal authorities face in the field of investment, climate protection and digitalisation. All of this must be managed with fewer staff. In view of the mounting wave of retirements, it is becoming increasingly important to modernise and focus public tasks: "We don't need a weak government, but a government that does the right thing".