As of: April 4, 2024, 8:45 p.m
By: Max Schäfer
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Germany's economy is weakening. Five top managers of family businesses rail against the traffic light policy. But society also has its share.
Munich – “We are suffering from false incentives,” says Rainer Kirchdörfer, board member of the Family Business Foundation. “We are missing a new welcoming culture for companies,” he is convinced. “The state and society are putting too many obstacles in their way.” Kirchdörfer uses this to justify the weak economic situation and the fact that various companies are turning away from Germany. He also blames the traffic light coalition for this. She was “really a world champion in announcing and incredibly weak in implementation,” Kirchhöfer told
Focus
.
Kirchhöfer describes in clear terms the mood due to the economic situation in Germany. Together with five other family entrepreneurs, he
described the problems in Germany in an interview with
Focus
. At the core of the criticism are the sprawling bureaucracy, lack of digitalization - and the politics of traffic lights and the EU in general. All reasons that make traditional companies question Germany as a location.
Manager tackles the politics of the traffic light coalition: “Only headlessness rules”
But society also contributes to this. Logistics entrepreneur Rolf Schnellecke, who is also a CDU member, wants to observe that society has become too comfortable. The willingness to make an effort has diminished. Startup entrepreneur Katharina Kreitz from the company Vectoflow describes a “crazy entitlement mentality” among the population. “I already experience many German citizens who expect help from their state in every situation.”
Above all, however, the entrepreneurs complain about the federal government: “I still have difficulty understanding some of the tensions in the traffic light policy, where there is simply no big plan,” says Rolf Schnellecke. “Unfortunately, only headlessness reigns.”
Rainer Kirchdörfer is on the board of the Family Business Foundation. (Archive photo) © Christoph Schmidt/dpa
The managing director of the automotive supplier Coroplast, Natalie Mekelburger, provides an example. The industry has “invested billions in electromobility primarily because of the given course.” If politicians cap purchase premiums, “then there is no consistent logic and many companies see it as a slap in the face.”
Top managers criticize the “redistribution state” and “eco-social control course”
Germany has become a “redistribution state” that has been booming again since the grand coalition. The state prescribes technologies “that are certainly controversial” and excludes those “that could help us with the sustainability transition,” says Mekelburger in the
Focus
interview. She cites nuclear power as an example. In addition, sustainability currently comes before profitability. “This creates a lot of bans, controls, new rules and laws, which you then need additional officials to comply with.”
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She expects nothing from the traffic light coalition around Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD), Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) and Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP). The goals are completely different within the coalition. “Red-green is pursuing an eco-social control course,” says Mekelburger. The Coroplast managing director demands that she be allowed to address the problems “with the possibilities of the market economy”. This also includes openness to technology. She describes the energy transition as “pure dirigisme”.
What family business owners want from the traffic light government
Christoph Werner, head of the drugstore chain DM, observes a lack of “a basic understanding of our system”. He bases this on the debates about a “social-ecological market economy”. People were talking about this “who obviously didn’t understand the basic principles of our social market economy.” This has always had the mission of increasing prosperity, which “of course also includes an intact environment”.
In addition to progress in digitalization and openness to technology, Werner calls for a withdrawal of regulation in the
Focus
discussion with other entrepreneurs. The DM boss also has one wish in the ongoing debate about the debt brake and state investments: budget discipline.
In contrast, a recent analysis by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) of the economic situation in Germany suggests reforming the debt brake to enable more investment. The IMF economists also see the economic problems as being more structural. One of them is a lack of investment, the other is the aging society. However, the family business owners are not alone in their criticism. Foreign companies also have doubts about Germany's stability. (ms)