In a four-page letter to members of parliament from the CDU-CSU and SPD, Chancellor Friedrich Merz wrote that the economic situation must be given “top priority,” to keep and improve the German industry’s competitiveness, and that “the situation in some sectors of the economy is very critical.” In 2026, the Chancellor said, it will be a matter of making the right political decisions to radically improve conditions in Germany. He goes on to write that labor costs, energy costs, bureaucratic burdens, and tax burdens remain too high.
Major industries, as well as significant sections of small and medium-sized enterprises and skilled trades, are facing enormous challenges, and jobs are being lost in many companies, Merz wrote. Whether the “top priorities” involve reasonable steps, is however doubtful: He has invited for a Hamburg summit of nine Nordic states to discuss how the North Sea could be developed into the “world’s largest reservoir of clean energy,” according to a Jan. 5 statement, which emphasized the expansion of offshore wind energy throughout the North Sea region as being “of central importance for an economically strong, secure, and independent Europe.” Switching from traditional energy sources to hydrogen was likewise important, Merz claimed. No mention of nuclear power, no repair of German-Russian economic cooperation and repair of Nord Stream 2. Merz’s future for Germany is a non-future, based on the Green Agenda and russophobia.
