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Minister of Economic Affairs Altmaier, Chancellor Merkel: Lost the economic compass
Photo:
CLEMENS BILAN / EPA-EFE / Shutterstock
There was a time when the CDU saw itself as a force for economic reform.
She designed control systems that fit on coasters.
She wanted to decouple the social security from labor costs.
And its chairwoman gave speeches in which words like "system change", "structural reform" and "new territory" were lined up.
It was about a new "early days", Angela Merkel called to her party friends at the time, in which people could again experience "what economic progress means".
Almost two decades later, little is left of the atmosphere of optimism.
In the autumn of the Merkel era, the party's leaders outbid each other to send out contradicting signals and confusing messages.
Chancellery chief Helge Braun wants to suspend the debt brake, which was once the premium product in the CDU range.
Economics Minister Peter Altmaier would like to reduce the amount of state holdings in companies, which he had previously expanded considerably as part of his “new industrial policy”.
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