The CDU chairman Friedrich Merz warned of the danger of an economic decline and demanded countermeasures from the federal government.
In the middle of summer, the number of unemployed rose, and despite the shortage of skilled workers, the number of insolvencies in the first half of 2023 was 16 percent higher than in the previous year, Merz told the German Press Agency. In addition, industrial production is declining. “As a country with a high proportion of industry, this must concern us deeply.”
“Germany is losing competitiveness,” warned the opposition leader in the Bundestag. “This is not an abrupt process that triggers an overnight economic crisis. Instead, we are experiencing a gradual process of deindustrialization in our country.”
You have to ask yourself whether the labor market is actually still working properly with 769,000 vacancies and 2.55 million unemployed, said Merz. “Or are we preparing for the fact that we can only cover the need for labor with ever-increasing immigration?” If that’s the case, the federal government should ask itself why it can’t get at least those from abroad to come who made the appropriate applications weeks or months ago. At the German representations abroad, applications in five-digit numbers remained unprocessed.”
Criticism of the focus on immigration of skilled workers
The designated CDU General Secretary Carsten Linnemann complained that the federal government was relying too much on immigration from abroad in its response to the shortage of skilled workers. “The federal government makes the mistake of focusing primarily on the immigration of foreign skilled workers,” he told the newspapers of the Funke media group. “But the potential is small: around 40,000 to 60,000 people from third countries enter the labor market every year, and that doesn’t solve our problems. The government criminally ignores domestic potential.”
Education Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger reacted to the criticism with incomprehension. “The fact that a CDU-led federal government has prevented more immigration of skilled workers for years and thus contributed to the current shortage of skilled workers is one thing,” said the FDP politician to the dpa in Berlin. “But the fact that she didn’t learn anything from it is outrageous and a threat to prosperity.” Of course, the domestic potential must be exploited, which the federal government is doing, for example, with the excellence initiative for vocational training. “But of course, in view of an aging society, it will not work without more immigration of skilled workers. Anyone who questions this does not think first of growth and prosperity.”
Debate on budgetary response
Meanwhile, the discussion about the right fiscal response to the economic slump continued. DGB boss Yasmin Fahimi criticized the federal government’s austerity course. “Now it will be decided whether Germany will still have a strong industry with good jobs in the future and whether transformation will also bring social progress,” she told “Bild am Sonntag”. “In a situation like this, every global company would invest as much as possible in smart investments for the future. The federal government, on the other hand, delays investments and looks at the state budget like Grandma’s cookie jar: I only take out what I put in beforehand.” That is poison for the economy.
Fahimi is chairwoman of the German Trade Union Confederation (DGB). She used to be SPD general secretary and then also state secretary in the Federal Ministry of Labor.
The FDP rejected demands from the ranks of the Greens for an “investment offensive” to boost the economy. “Instead of continuously demanding billions for subsidy programs that completely miss the core of the problem, the Minister of Economics should finally take constructive action and present an offensive plan for Germany’s competitiveness,” said FDP General Secretary Bijan Djir-Sarai of the dpa.
The gross domestic product stagnated in the second quarter compared to the previous quarter, as the Federal Statistical Office announced on Friday. Green Group Vice President Andreas Audretsch had called for investments in “future technologies”. The planned climate protection investment bonus from Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) is a step in the right direction, but is unfortunately a “miniature model”. He also advocated the reduced industrial electricity price proposed by Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens).
