(Adnkronos) – A cold reception for Friedrich Merz from the participants gathered in Berlin for the Federal Congress of the German Trade Union Confederation: the approximately 400 delegates listened to the chancellor for little more than fifteen minutes before the first boos erupted.
Merz painted a bleak picture of the situation in the country: economic development has been stagnating for at least seven years, while other states are growing. The increase in energy, production, and living costs following the war in Iran, as well as high bureaucratic costs for businesses, are putting a strain on the country’s population.
But economic growth is not an end in itself, but rather a prerequisite for employment, tax revenues, a functioning welfare system, and adequate pensions, Merz emphasized. “We simply haven’t managed to modernize our country,” he stated, then launched an appeal: “Germany must get a move on.” “We cannot continue as we have for the last 20 years.”
When he urged them to consider the upcoming reforms as an opportunity rather than a threat and to participate in them, he was met with boos and resentful interruptions. In particular, the cost-cutting measures already decided by the federal government for mandatory health insurance drew disapproval from several trade union representatives. Merz retorted: “It’s not malice on my part or the federal government’s,” “it’s about demographics and mathematics.”
