Friday 29th of August 2025
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the gravedigger of the german economy.....

German chancellor Friedrich Merz has made a moderate media splash and ruffled some feathers in his own ruling coalition with the Centrist Social Democrats (SPD). Using the platform of a regional party congress of his CDU Conservatives in Niedersachsen, Merz has delivered a speech that immediately attracted national attention and will be remembered for one phrase.

 

Cut welfare, give billions to Ukraine, suppress opposition: The German leader’s checklist to success
Friedrich Merz thinks he is the savior of the old German establishment. He is really more of a gravedigger

BY Tarik Cyril Amar

 

“The social [welfare] state, as we have it today,” the chancellor declared with appropriately dour mien, “can no longer be financed by what we are achieving economically.” Put differently, severe budget cuts on social issues are coming. And since that is a policy operative since, at the latest, 2003, there really isn’t so much left to cut. Merz is promising his people more of a bad time.

His people. Not, however, the ultra-corrupt political anti-elite of Ukraine. Just before Merz’s claim that Germany cannot afford what it used to offer to Germans who pay for it, his government promised €9 billion ($10.4 bn) per year for Ukraine in 2025 and 2026, for now. That is on top of the €44 billion already sent that way. Germany is the “second-largest backer” of the Kiev regime in the world, as its obviously thoroughly detached finance minister Lars Klingbeil emphasizes with a perverse pride that must sound like a bad joke to many of his compatriots.

Speaking of Klingbeil, in his Niedersachsen speech Merz also announced that he would “deliberately not make it easy” for his government colleagues from the SPD, who include, of course, Klingbeil. The SPD, of course, is well-known for being against harsh reductions in what Germans can expect from, in essence, old-age pensions, public health care, and the basic form of unemployment insurance now known as “Bürgergeld” (literally, “citizens’ money”).

There is no reason to underestimate Merz’s genuine ideological commitment. It is true that, in general, he is unusually brutal about being dishonest even for a politician: Germany’s current leader has already proven that he is capable of breathtaking flipflops, staggering electoral bad faith, and underhanded maneuvering that violates the spirit of democracy if not the letter of the constitution.

In the spring, his U-turn on public debt, to finance Germany’s new militarism on – exuberant – credit, was not only a massive breach of trust regarding especially his own conservative voters. Shamelessly exploiting a legal loophole, Merz also executed this radical reversal – many in his own party called it betrayal – by relying on parliamentary majorities that had already been cancelled by an election.

Likewise, Merz’s coalition then proceeded to break promises regarding an energy tax relief as well as benefits for mothers. Germans are angry, but there is no sign that Merz and his government care. Consequently, according to a fresh poll by the reputable INSA institute, 62 percent of Germans are dissatisfied with their government.

And yet, there is a hard core of authentic Merz, shaped by his own wealth, a very privileged life without material worries, and his long career as an overpaid member of the supervisory-board network nobility, at BlackRock and elsewhere: if there is one thing Germany’s leader is sincere about, it is his iron will to make the less well-off bleed more and work even harder, while making sure that those as materially comfortable and safe as himself get even richer. Call it neoliberalism with an unsmiling German face.

Merz, of course, is also a very ordinary man, incapable of much self-reflection. He cannot honestly face any of the above. Instead he misunderstands himself as a savior of the fatherland, which he sees in need of much tough love and plenty of wholesome kicks up the backside to rediscover discipline, hard work, and competitiveness.

The upshot of Merz’s blatant upper-class bias is, as a perspicacious German observer has put it, a de facto escalation of the ongoing re-distribution of income, wealth, and life chances – from those below to those above. Even now, 80 percent of the country’s taxes stem from income and value-added taxation. In other words: you work, you eat and keep a family going – be proud, you are also doing by far the most to pay the country’s bills. But Friedrich Merz, a millionaire who falls under “silver-spoon” rather than “self-made,” thinks it’s not yet enough.

No wonder, then, that Merz’s recent speech in Niedersachsen has resonated. It was delivered in a sour as well as emphatic tone perhaps best described as schoolmasterly belligerence and featured much gratuitous no-compromise posing addressed probably more to his own doubting party and voters then his SPD coalition partners in Berlin. If Merz’s intention was to achieve a minor shock effect after Germany’s political summer break, he’s scored an ephemeral success.

But his speech has also been misunderstood. In reality, its key message was something else and even worse. Yet another “business-friendly” – and business has also been very friendly to him – instinctive Western austeritarian telling his people they are having it too good and must lower their expectations? Not really news, is it?

What was much more interesting was Merz’s reasoning. In his own words, the central political challenge is to prove that Germany “can be governed successfully from the center.” Or to be concrete, to keep down and out of power Germany’s two “populist” insurgent parties: from the right the very successful Alternative for Germany party (AfD), which tends to lead German opinion polls now, and, from the left, the currently marginalized – probably by foul play in the manner of, say, Romania or Moldova – but still threatening Bündnis Sarah Wagenknecht (BSW).

Merz’s threat to go after what is left of the social welfare state in Germany comes with a promise of “reforms,” indeed a whole “autumn of reforms.” The purpose of this planned political offensive is clear: to persuade voters that they need not rely on those terrible “populists” to finally break out of the German doom loop of economic decline, demographic crisis, and pervasive malaise.

Yet Merz’s strategy of what Germans call a “Befreiungsschlag” (a “deliverance strike”) smells of despair and is unlikely to succeed. Instead of an “autumn of reforms,” Germans are more likely to see their Winter of Discontent get even grimmer.

Consider some basic data: We have just learned that Germany’s recession in the last quarter has been even worse than predicted: -0.3 instead of -0.1 percent. German industry is shedding jobs by the hundreds of thousands. In general, Germany’s economy remains heavily dependent on exports. It has stagnated for half a decade already and been in serious trouble much longer. In the EU+Britain, it is the most brutally affected by Trump’s ongoing and still escalating tariff war against Washington's vassals. Klingbeil admits that the budget will be €170 billion short by 2029 – despite dialing debt up to eleven.

And all of that when the German ruling coalition only has what the Financial Times rightly calls a “razor-thin”parliamentary majority. Add that two of the most damaging strikes against the German economy have been self-inflicted: Sky-high energy prices, the direct result of shutting Germany off from (direct) Russian supplies – with the alleged help of a few Ukrainian divers and their US friends, of course – and subservience to the US.

That subservience has only grown worse under both Merz and his equally hapless predecessor Olaf Scholz. Both have been bending over backward to please and appease America, just when its policies have become even more brutal: We are at a moment in “atlanticism” when a US treasury secretary openly announces that Washington sees its allies’ economies as its very own “sovereign wealth fund” at the disposal not of their governments or – perish the thought – citizens, but of the US president. And Merz and co. grin and nod and ask for more.

The irony of it all is that while slavishly compliant with the US, Merz cannot learn the single biggest, most obvious lesson of its very recent political history, although it quite literally stares him in the face every time he visits the Oval Office to grovel: Donald Trump has become president against enormous resistance not once but twice because he led a “populist” challenge against a rotten establishment that Americans saw as unpatriotic.

The future of Merz is not the success of Trump but the defeat and disgrace of Biden and everything he stood for. Germans, too, will demand a government that looks after German interests before it makes even more demands of them. Grotesquely, Merz thinks he is the savior of the old German establishment. He is its gravedigger. And in that sense, all power to his misguided arm!

https://www.rt.com/news/623597-merz-welfare-ukraine-opposition/

 

YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT.

 

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.

at the centre....

 

Is a belligerent dictatorship menacing in Germany?     by Karl-Jürgen Müller

 

Hauke Ritz gave his book, published in spring 2025, a title that seems surprising at first glance: “Why world peace depends on Germany”2. This was also the title of an essay he wrote in February 2023. Now this essay has become the final chapter of his book. Here we read: “Germany [is] at the centre of the increasingly escalating conflict between the US and Russia.” The logistics of US military support for Ukraine are “processed via German territory. German railways, port facilities, highways, and transhipment points are being used to send US military equipment to the new ‘Eastern Front.’” “The [US] coordination centre [for the war] is located in Wiesbaden, Germany.” Other US bases in Germany are also of great importance for the war. Germany is involved in “training Ukrainian soldiers, supplying [...] tanks, and providing the second-highest share of financial aid to Ukraine. [...] In short, without Germany, it would be impossible for the US to use Ukraine as a proxy in its war against its arch-enemy Moscow”.
  Two pages further on, we can read: “There is therefore only one limit that could restrain Washington in its willingness to escalate. And that is the line drawn by Berlin! […] If our country refuses to participate in this war, then it will end.” However, it also states: “If the German government continues on the path it has taken since 24 February 2022 […], the coming world war will also be our war”.
  Two and a half years have passed since the essay was written. It is uncertain whether the US administration, which has been in office since January, will continue the war against Russia. But it is certain that other powerful US circles want to continue the war. And as for the German government, since Friedrich Merztook office, it has behaved not only as an executive body, but as a veritable warmonger in the front lines. The fact that the German government – despite its lip service – is not interested in a diplomatic solution to the war in Ukraine was made clear once again in the statement adopted on 9 August by the heads of state and government of Finland, France, Great Britain, Italy, and Poland, as well as the President of the European Commission, on the meeting between the US and Russian presidents on 15 August: no acceptance of responsibility for the war in Ukraine, instead propaganda-driven accusations against Russia and a call for the confrontation to continue.3
  Many people around the world are wondering why Germany is taking these disastrous steps and why public opposition to them is so weak.
  Does the majority of Germans actively support these steps toward war?
  For many years now, Germans have been regularly asked about their political opinions. One of the many questions asked by the Forsa4 institute is: “Which party is best equipped to deal with the problems in Germany?” The survey, conducted between 29 July and 4 August 2025, revealed that 51 per cent, i.e. the absolute majority of those surveyed, said they did not believe any party was capable of solving Germany’s problems. The figures for the individual parties are even more drastic: only 20 per cent believe that the Union parties (CDU/CSU) are capable of dealing with the country’s problems, and only 6 per cent believe that the SPD is capable of doing so. The situation is not better for the opposition parties in the German Bundestag. Looking at the figures since January 2023, it becomes clear that this scepticism toward all parties is not a snapshot in time; it has been going on, with fluctuations, for years.
  Some might now rejoice and say: Our constant criticism of German politics has been successful! The citizens no longer trust any party!
  But where does that lead? To an insight and a change of direction by the current government? Experience suggests not. To better election results? There are no convincing parties in sight. To a “peaceful revolution” like in the east of the country in the late 1980s of the past century? There is a lot to say about that. Here are just two questions: What has become of the “peaceful revolution”? Do we really have a better Germany today than before “reunification”?
  Or are we facing a development similar to that in Germany in the first half of the 20th century? A call for a “strong man”? Rapid steps toward an open dictatorship?
  If it remains merely a matter of citizen dissatisfaction and constant “criticism,” this cannot be ruled out! Books such as “The West in Decline” (Emmanuel Todd) or “The Decline of the West …” (Hauke Ritz) and developments in the US warn us to take the indication of a threat of open dictatorship seriously.
  On 17 July 2025, the Swiss newspaper Weltwoche5 published a detailed report on an influential US computer scientist and blogger: Curtis Yarvin. The author of the Weltwoche article used a statement by Yarvin as the title of the article: “Democracy is nonsense.” The report and the statements quoted from Yarvin provide insight into the abysses of an American version of power mania and contempt for humanity. Yarvin is presented as a “mastermind of the ‘Make America Great Again’ movement,” is closely connected to the movement’s leadership, has close ties to billionaire, AI promoter (Palantir), and Trump financier Peter Thiel, and wants the current vice president, J. D. Vance, to be the next king (sic!) of the US. Equality of all people, equal rights, and social equality are foreign to him. Instead, he presents himself as a radical neoliberal and opponent of the state – with one exception: the state as an instrument of power for a ruling elite that wants to crack down on unpopular groups of the population. He has nothing but contempt for democracy. …You have to read the article in Weltwochesentence by sentence and let it sink in.
  For enlightened, civilized Europeans, this is a terrible dystopia. But it is a dystopia that is being worked on vigorously in the US – and probably not only there.
  And what was it like in Germany 100 years ago, in 1925 – in the middle of the Golden Twenties? Who could have imagined back then how the country would develop and what it would look like after 30 January 1933?
  In other words, criticism of Merkel, Scholz, Merz, and Co. is certainly justified – but when there is a lack of ethical foundations almost everywhere, when so much is in disarray, when there is no perspective... then no one knows where the pendulum will swing. Developments in the US are a warning sign.
  So what can be done? Historical experience shows that imposing elaborate rules on fellow citizens on what they should do is not the answer. There may be well-formulated programs, but how quickly do such programs degenerate into ideological building blocks of collective coercion?
  So one thing remains above all else: Dialogue with our fellow citizens. Being well informed, thinking freely and independently, feeling compassion for others, and being able to act courageously – these are the best prerequisites for humane solutions – perhaps even without political parties. Equal and equal rights, freedom, communal, direct democracy. It’s not easy. But it would be a blessing for Germany and for peace. •

https://www.zeit-fragen.ch/en/archives/2025/nr-17-5-august-2025-1/droht-deutschland-eine-kriegerische-diktatur

 

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YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT.

 

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.

 

SEE ALSO: https://yourdemocracy.net/drupal/node/47514

losing jobs....

 

German car industry sheds 51,500 jobs in a year
Mark Hallam

The dip equates to almost 7% of the total workforce in the German auto sector. Faltering exports to China and the US play a role, as new tariffs raise barriers to entry in both these core markets.

German industry's steady decline in employment figures continues, with the country's prized automobile industry leading the pack, according to a new study from accounting giants EY (formerly known as Ernst & Young) based on data from the government's statistics office. 

EY recorded roughly 51,500 lost car industry jobs in the space of a year, equating to 6.7% of the sector's total workforce. This made up almost half of the 114,000 industrial jobs lost in the same time period.

The phenomenon also appears to be accelerating: Since 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic, roughly 112,000 carmaking jobs have been lost in Germany — almost half of them in the past 12 months.

The US and China both contributing to car industry job cuts 

The turnover of German industrial companies dipped by 2.1% in the second quarter of 2025, much more than the 0.3% negative growth overall. Only the electronics industry improved turnover in the quarter, car companies' revenues dipped by 1.6%. 

 

Exports to the US, Germany's largest single market, dipped by around 10%, with EY's Jan Brohriker predicting that "improvement is not in sight" given President Donald Trump's introduction of new, slightly higher tariffs — at 15% for cars. 

But a sharp dip in exports to China is also impacting the car industry. Long Germany's second most lucrative export market, China has slipped to sixth in the rankings, with a 14% year-on-year dip in the last quarter.

"The US and China are currently the cause of major concerns," Brohriker said. "The Chinese market was particularly attractive to the automobile industry for a long time, with very large margins. But in the meantime the wind has turned, particularly for foreign carmakers: demand is dropping drastically and turnover is collapsing." 

The EU and China have been engaged in a tariff battle of their own recently, particularly over China's cheaper electric cars, and the rapidly growing Chinese car industry is covering more and more of domestic demand itself. 

Why Germany's at the center of the belt-tightening

Major firms including Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen, Audi, Bosch, Continental, ZF, and Porsche have all launched cost-cutting programs — and often these cutbacks start close to home in Germany, not at foreign production facilities.

"Germany car companies and components manufacturers are reacting logically to the industry's difficult situation with a savings drive," EY's Brohriker said. "Massive profit reductions, excess production capacity and weakening export markets are making considerable job cuts unavoidable — particuarly in Germany, where management, administration and R&D jobs are based." 

EY forecast that the falling job numbers would likely prove an ongoing trend, citing ongoing restructuring and cost reduction plans that would continue to lead to layoffs. It also forecast a more difficult future for budding young engineers leaving school or university. 

"The car industry and machine engineering sector is hiring considerably fewer young people than in years past," Brohriker said. "The labor market for young engineers is getting uncomfortable, many will have to reorient themselves. We will see rising unemployment among university graduates, which Germany hasn't experienced for a long time." 

Edited by: Wesley Dockery

https://www.dw.com/en/german-car-industry-sheds-51500-jobs-in-a-year/a-73768859

 

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YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT.

 

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.