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DW
9 hours ago
- Business
- DW
'Made for Germany': German Companies show optimism – DW – 07/22/2025
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has joined forces with the country's top business leaders, who pledge major investment to pull Germany out of recession. There is always an element of psychology in economics. If companies are confident they can do good business in the future, they will strongly invest. If prospects look poor, they will hold on to the money. The COVID-19 pandemic with its collapse of international supply chains, the war in Ukraine, the subsequent energy crisis and inflation, the weakening economy in China — all took a heavy toll on the export-oriented German economy. Economic activity nosedived. Germany slid into a lasting recession. Since then, optimism has not returned. The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) registered a lower investment ratio for Germany in 2024 than all other 38 member countries. That will soon change, according to the heads of leading companies in Germany. A total of 61 of them, including corporations such as Airbus, BASF, BMW, Deutsche Börse, Mercedes-Benz, Rheinmetall, SAP, Volkswagen but also the US corporations Nvidia, Blackrock and Blackstone — have launched the initiative "Made for Germany." The name is reminiscent, deliberately, of the slogan "Made in Germany" which has become a symbol of quality. Together, the corporations representing a third of the German economy want to invest €631 billion ($733 billion) in Germany over the next three years. The money will go toward new and existing factories, as well as research and development. "We want economic growth, we want to strengthen Germany's competitiveness, we want to defend our technological leadership or extend it further," one of the alliance's two initiators, Siemens chief executive Roland Busch, said following a meeting of the initiative with government politicians at the chancellery. Christian Sewing, chief executive of Deutsche Bank and co-initiator of the alliance alongside Busch, expects even more businesses to join. "Germany is back. It's worth investing in Germany again," said Chancellor Friedrich Merz of the conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) after the meeting. "We stand here before one of the largest investment initiatives that we have seen here in Germany in recent decades. We are not a location of the past, but a location of the present and above all the future," he added. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video The mood in the chancellery was clearly positive. However, the economic situation in Germany remains sluggish; the country is facing its third year in a row without growth. Given the tariff policies of US President Donald Trump, the outlook is anything but good. Reviving the economy is the top priority for Germany's new government. The coalition of the center-right Christian Democrats and Christian Social Union (CDU/CSU) and the center-left Social Democrats has been in office since early May. They have made their first steps: The Bundestag federal parliament and Bundesrat upper house have authorized the borrowing of €500 billion ($580 billion) for a special fund for government investment in infrastructure and climate protection. Its intended focus is to whip the country's ailing transport routes into shape, invest in energy networks, digitization and research. Energy prices for the industry will be reduced, and businesses are set for massive tax relief. Initially, investment in production facilities, machinery, equipment, research and development will be accounted for during tax assessments. In the medium term, taxes on business are to be reduced. In Friedrich Merz, Germany now has a chancellor who himself spent many years in business. Among other roles, the lawyer formerly chaired the supervisory board of the US financial investor BlackRock. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video "Today we have begun a new form of cooperation," Siemens head Busch said. "The conversation has shown that politics and business are on the same page." Deutsche Bank CEO Sewing added: "In my view, we are experiencing a government that is moving quickly. The most important things — growth and competitiveness — are right at the top of the agenda." To release the announced billions, politicians should ease up on regulations and give companies more freedom, Sewing said. Businesses are calling for reforms, especially concerning bureaucracy and social security contributions which push up the cost of labor. In Germany, employers and employees each pay half of worker contributions to health insurance, unemployment insurance and pensions. Due to higher costs for healthcare, health insurance contributions increased across the board at the beginning of this year. Contributions to long-term care insurance are expected to rise in 2026. In Germany, 42% of the gross national product goes toward social services. Pension funds are the biggest driver of this. Germany is an ageing society, and the baby boomer generation will retire from the workforce in the coming years. In addition, life expectancy is increasing. To afford the old-age pension, the government must contribute more money to the pension funds each year. According to the OECD, reforming social insurance is the biggest challenge for Germany. If nothing changes, the government will need to keep taking on more debt to keep social systems afloat. Chancellor Friedrich Merz has announced that reforming the social system is next on his coalition's political agenda. Initial findings are expected in the coming you're here: Every Tuesday, DW editors round up what is happening in German politics and society. You can sign up here for the weekly email newsletter, Berlin Briefing.
DW
4 days ago
- Politics
- DW
Merz defends top court nominee from 'unacceptable' attack – DW – 07/18/2025
Germany's Friedrich Merz has weighed in on a dispute causing a rift within his ruling coalition. The conservative chancellor said much right-wing criticism of top court candidate Frauke Brosius-Gersdorf had been unfair. Conservative Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Friday defended Constitutional Court nominee Frauke Brosius-Gersdorf against fierce criticism from the political right. A dispute over the nomination has deepened discord within Merz's coalition, with center-left Social Democrats accusing conservative figures of exploiting claims about the law professor to sabotage her nomination for ideological reasons. Brosius-Gersdorf's nomination to Germany's top court was put on hold after a dispute over media portrayals of claims about her having "ultra-left" views and unsubstantiated plagiarism allegations. Brosius-Gersdorf was proposed as a candidate by the center-left Social Democrats, the junior partner in government. Merz's conservatives unexpectedly withdrew their support, citing concerns about her views on abortion and her support for mandatory vaccination during the COVID-19 pandemic. A scheduled vote on her appointment to the Federal Constitutional Court was postponed. However, Merz called the media scrum around the law professor in recent weeks "completely unacceptable." "The criticism that was expressed was at times unobjective, polemical, and in part personally insulting and degrading," Merz said. He warned of a climate — particularly on social media — where "massive personal defamation" is no longer off-limits. The discord between the two parties represents the first major crisis within Germany's governing coalition, which only came to power in May. Brosius-Gersdorf said in a letter that the depiction of her character as "ultra-left" and "radical left" was "defamatory and unrealistic." She also accused the German media of "inaccurate and incomplete, unobjective and non-transparent" reporting. Brosius-Gersdorf has said the regularly raised claim that she supports legalizing abortion up until birth, among other depictions of her views, was both inaccurate and disparaging. "If you categorize my academic positions in their political breadth, a picture of the democratic center emerges," she argued. In an interview with the broadcaster ZDF, Brosius-Gersdorf said she would withdraw if her nomination appeared to damage the court's reputation. "I don't think anyone could have imagined it in their worst dreams, this kind of politicization of a constitutional court election," she said. "It's extremely dangerous, because it endangers the culture of debate, the foundations of our democracy." Brosius-Gersdorf remains a candidate for the court and could still be appointed after the Bundestag's summer break. Merz, from the conservative Christian Democrats, has declined to say whether the coalition would present a new candidate. He said he believed in a good solution within the coalition. "I trust that the two parliamentary groups in the Bundestag will do well," the chancellor said. At the same time, Merz admitted that the candidature should be better prepared next time, and that personnel proposals should be discussed earlier. But, he said, there was no time pressure and talks within the coalition were ongoing. German Vice Chancellor Lars Klingbeil, from the Social Democrats, has urged "leadership and responsibility" from his conservative coalition partners. However, Federal Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt and Bavarian state premier leader Markus Söder, both from Bavaria's conservative Christian Social Union, have both called on Brosius-Gersdorf to withdraw her candidacy. Germany's National Association of Local Gender Equality Officers warned against any such move, saying it would "send the wrong signal to enemies of democracy." The organization called the pressure on the academic part of a broader antifeminist and far-right campaign. The Karlsruhe-based Constitutional Court ensures compliance with the country's constitution, with judges elected to 12-year terms, with an age limit of 68 years. As one of Germany's most powerful institutions, it has regularly challenged both German and European politics.
Euractiv
4 days ago
- Politics
- Euractiv
Germany resumes deportations to Taliban-run Afghanistan
BERLIN – Germany deported a group of convicted criminals to Afghanistan on Friday, for the first time since 2024. The deportation flight, which took off from Leipzig on Friday morning, marked only the second such operation since the Taliban seized power in 2021. Due to Berlin's lack of diplomatic ties with the radical Islamist militia, Friday's flight was coordinated with the help of Qatar. It carried 81 Afghan nationals convicted of serious crimes. Chancellor Friedrich Merz defended the move, saying that all the deported Afghans were rejected asylum-seekers without a right to remain in the country "We have included plans for such an approach in our coalition treaty, and it has now been completed for the first time today," he told journalists at a press conference on Friday. The negotiations over the deportations had taken four weeks, he added. The operation also followed previous calls by Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt for direct talks with the Taliban regime to facilitate regular deportations to the country. Human rights groups and UN agencies had criticised the remarks, with UN agencies saying that conditions in Afghanistan remained unsafe, pointing to ongoing human rights abuses. However, Merz said on Friday that there would never be anything more than "technical coordination" between the German government and the Taliban regime. Merz's Christian Democrats (CDU) and Dobrindt's Christian Social Union (CSU) have pushed for stricter asylum rules and expanded deportations, including to Afghanistan and Syria, after the authoritarian President, Bashar al-Assad, was replaced by a rebel-led government in December. Public pressure had mounted after violent incidents involving rejected asylum seekers in the run-up to Germany's national elections in February. The momentum for deportations to Afghanistan and Syria is also building in other European countries: Austria recently became the first EU country to resume deportations to Syria. (mm)
BBC News
5 days ago
- Business
- BBC News
Germany's Merz admits Europe was free-riding on the US
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has accepted US accusations that Europe was doing too little to fund its own defence and security, but now believes they are on the same page."We know we have to do more on our own and we have been free-riders in the past," he told the BBC's Today Programme, "they're asking us to do more and we are doing more."Merz was in the UK to boost defence ties with Germany, as part of a historic friendship treaty that also aims to tackle irregular migration and promote youth war with Ukraine has framed the early weeks of his chancellorship, as has US President Donald Trump's threat to impose 30% import tariffs on European Union exports from 1 August. Merz told Nick Robinson, in his first UK broadcast interview as chancellor, that he had now met Trump three times and they were on good speaking terms: "I think President Trump is on the same page; we are trying to bring this war to an end.""We are on the phone once a week; we are co-ordinating our efforts. One issue is the war in Ukraine, and the second is our trade debates and tariffs."Merz was a vocal supporter of Ukraine on the campaign trail, and visited Kyiv months before he took Germany's centre-right Christian Democrats to victory in elections in days after he was sworn in early in May, he was on a train to Kyiv in a show of solidarity with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and President Emmanuel Macron of France."We are seeing a big threat, and the threat is Russia. And this threat is not only on Ukraine. It's on our peace, on our freedom, on the political order of Europe," he the run-up to the German elections, US Vice-President JD Vance shocked an audience at the Munich Security Conference with a list of accusations against European allies, including the on the remarks, Merz said the government "had to draw our consequences out of that". The message from Vance's "very open manner" had, in other words, been heard loud and clear. Canan Atilgan of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation in London which is closely affiliated to Merz's party believes that had a profound effect on the incoming chancellor: "I think in Munich he thought we lost the Americans - we have to look after ourselves - and then Zelensky in the Oval Office happened." Even before he had been sworn in, the chancellor steered through a change in the German constitution to enable a huge rise in defence spending, saying the rule now for German defence was to do whatever it takes."We are not strong enough, our army is not strong enough, so that's the reason why we are spending a lot of money," he said in his BBC the UK, Germany and France are working on a triangular alliance of major European powers, dubbed the E3, which Merz says will focus not just on security and foreign policy but on economic growth as chancellor said he was now "very close with Keir Starmer" and with the French president too. Macron is due to visit him in Berlin next French leader signed a wide-ranging treaty with Germany in Aachen in 2019, and last week he agreed a deeper defence pact during a state visit to the UK, so the UK-German friendship treaty completes a triangle of bilateral in the plush surroundings of the German embassy, Friedrich Merz was about to head to the Victoria and Albert Museum to sign the pact with the Prime Minister. Merz said the bilateral treaty renewed the two allies' commitment to defend each other - which is not just part of the Nato treaty but was also previously part of their alliance when the UK was in the and German firms already collaborate in making products such as Typhoon Eurofighter jets and Boxer armoured vehicles, and the two governments have agreed to launch joint export campaigns that Downing Street believes could attract billions of are also developing a missile with a range of 2,000km (1,250 miles) and the chancellor later told a press conference that Ukraine would soon receive substantial additional support in "long-range fire".Merz, 69, is regarded as a strong believer in the transatlantic alliance and knows the US well from his years outside politics working for an American investment on the night of his election victory he declared that the Trump administration was "largely indifferent to the fate of Europe", a remark seen at the time as undiplomatic for a if he had since changed his mind, he said he had not, as Trump was "not as clear and as committed as former US presidents were, former US administrations were". The Americans were moving away from Europe and turning to Asia, he observed, and that was why it was important to look at greater independence from American UK has largely escaped the turbulence surrounding US tariffs on its exports, but the European Union is facing a deadline less than two weeks away, and the threat of 30% tariffs on all its trade negotiator Maroš Šefčovič travelled to Washington this week in search of a deal that would spare all 27 member states from a surge in US import sees the high tariffs as unacceptable and killing Germany's export industry."My observation is that the president himself is seeing the challenges and that he is willing to come to an agreement. He gets it." Another important element of the UK-German treaty is Berlin's agreement to change the law to criminalise smugglers storing small boats in Germany for use in illegal Channel crossings. The storage of boats in Germany was revealed by a BBC investigation last chancellor said his government would "do our homework immediately" and expected it would not take long to push through parliament after the summer are also plans for a direct rail link from London to Berlin, and for British and German students to take part in exchanges, which have declined since said he very much hoped that the first people who might see a practical difference from the friendship treaty would be students, so that the younger generation could drive relations between the two allies in the future.
Local Sweden
6 days ago
- Health
- Local Sweden
Sweden's new gender change law 'one less thing to worry about'
At the beginning of July, Sweden removed some of the restrictions for changing gender legally and how it appears on official documents. How has this affected people in the country wanting to change gender? Advertisement After four years of waiting, Jenny Leonor Werner sees the light at the end of the tunnel, able to legally switch gender following a recent change to Swedish law. "It just feels good ‒ one less thing to worry about," Werner, 22, who was declared male at birth but identifies as female, told AFP. Now all that is needed to change is a medical certificate stating that a person's gender identity does not align with the one indicated on their birth certificate. Healthcare professionals have to evaluate whether the change better reflects the person's gender identity and must ensure that the person can live with their new gender identity for the foreseeable future. The minimum age to make the change has also been lowered from 18 to 16 years, although people under 18 need permission from their legal guardian. A week after the law came into effect, 106 people had submitted applications, according to Sweden's National Board of Health and Welfare. Previously, individuals wanting to change their legal gender had to undergo a lengthy evaluation process in order to obtain a diagnosis of gender dysphoria. That is a condition where a person experiences distress as a result of a mismatch between the sex they were assigned at birth and the gender they identify themselves as having. Werner had received this diagnosis in 2024 after a four-year process and could have already requested the legal change. But healthcare staff advised her "to wait for the new law, as the process should be faster". Advertisement Gender dysphoria rise Access to surgical procedures is also simplified under the new law ‒ the requirement to first change one's legal gender has been removed. Before the law was passed in April of last year, it was preceded by intense debates in parliament, with the right-wing ruling coalition government divided. The Moderates and Liberals were in favour of the text but government partner the Christian Democrats opposed it, as did the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats, which is propping up the government. "This law is a major step forward. The separation of law and medicine in the new law makes things much easier," Frank Berglund, a policy expert at the Swedish Association for Sexuality Education (RFSU), told AFP. Berglund, 30, legally changed his gender at the age of 19. Like Werner, it took him about four years to obtain the gender dysphoria diagnosis. Advertisement Currently, the waiting time to even begin an evaluation can stretch to several years, according to the National Board of Health and Welfare. The health agency has also noted a sharp increase in cases of gender dysphoria, particularly among 13- to 17-year-olds who were declared female at birth. The agency reported a 1,500-percent jump between 2008 and 2018. Following the rapid increase and citing a need for caution, Swedish authorities decided in 2022 to halt hormone therapy for minors except in very rare cases. They also limited mastectomies for teenagers wanting to transition. Berglund said the new law would help "reduce waiting lists in healthcare to some extent". He also welcomed the possibility of making the legal change before the age of 18, saying it was absurd that he had been able to complete the entire medical procedure before 18 but not the legal process. "I had already changed my name, started hormone treatment and received the diagnosis," he said. Werner recounted being asked: "Is this you?" when showing her identification card. "Now I can get a new ID card that I'm really happy with," she said. "I've never been satisfied with the ID cards and passports I've had before." With the new law, Sweden is amending its gender identity legislation for the first time since it was first adopted in 1972. Back then, the Nordic country became a world pioneer by allowing people to legally change their gender. But campaigners want Sweden to go further and allow people to change their legal gender without requiring a medical certificate, as is the case in all other Nordic countries. By AFP's Agnes Johanna Wästfelt
