03-04-2025
Eastern German leaders: Cutting bureaucracy key to economic revival
Eastern German leaders said on Thursday that stripping back bureaucracy was key to a prosperous future, as talks were held about how to help a region which lags the rest of reunified Germany in terms of wealth and opportunities.
February's national parliamentary election revealed continuing divisions in Germany, 35 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, with the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) performing strongly in areas which formerly made up East Germany.
At a conference of the premiers of the six eastern German states in Berlin, Thuringia Premier Mario Voigt said the federal government should learn from the experience of eastern Germany after reunification to guide the whole country's economic recovery.
"A boost for Germany must start now, with low taxes, less bureaucracy," Voigt said. "Much of the experience we have gained in the east in the past 35 years, in transformation, in change, can play a major role."
In addition to Thuringia, the states of Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Brandenburg, Berlin and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern are also involved, along with the current commissioner for eastern Germany, Carsten Schneider. His government job is to advocate for the region.
The five eastern states, as well as eastern Berlin, were formerly part of East Germany, which fused with West Germany in 1990 and saw an at-times rocky transition from a communist planned economy to the Western-style free market.
Business representatives were also invited to the meeting, including the president of the Chamber of Industry and Commerce of Eastern Thuringia, Ralf-Uwe Bauer.
Bauer said eastern Germany has seen an "extremely positive economic development" since reunification, but problems remain, such as excessive bureaucracy and high energy costs.
The meeting on Thursday came as Germany awaits the formation of a new government in Berlin, with the conservative CDU/CSU bloc - made up of Friedrich Merz's Christian Democrats and the Bavaria-only Christian Social Union - negotiating with the centre-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) over a coalition.
Concerns have been raised that only two of the 19 representatives in the parties' central negotiating teams are from the former East Germany.
