On the podium, Verena Pausder (Chairman of the Board of the Startup Association), Nikolaus Blome (Head of Politics and Economics at RTL and n-tv) and Christian Lindner (former Federal Finance Minister) discussed the economic and political situation of Germany after nine months of the new federal government.
Verena Pausder highlighted the new Federal Ministry for Digital Transformation and Government Modernisation as a positive sign, particularly Minister Carsten Wildberger's approach: “In early 2027, we’ll all have a federal wallet with ID card, driver’s license, vehicle licence, insurance card.” However, she criticised “division of responsibility” between ministries and called for more courage, innovation and capital for new industries: “The economic miracle of the last century was based on the fact that 4% of GDP went to innovation, now we’re at 0.1. This will not create a new business model for Germany.”
As the government's ‘top man’, Nikolaus Blome praised the work of Economics Minister Katharina Reiche, who has managed to “bring more sense of proportion to climate protection and the major transformation effort”. He cited repeated attempts to boost consumption by cutting VAT as a flop: “The definition of insanity is that you always do the same thing and hope for a different outcome each time.” Blome also recalled that Germany’s business model – cheap energy and perfect globalisation – is no longer working: “‘At least not at the moment, but possibly never again.”
Christian Lindner stressed the importance of the fiscal turnaround: This is a gamble that could pay off and create a new path to growth for Germany." However, he warned that it could also backfire. And then we would have more debt without economic dynamism. Lindner also warned: “We need to realistically recognise that competitiveness isn’t something that can be conjured up by the state with public money, but rather arises from top-quality products that are attractive on the global markets.”
In the final round, Nikolaus Blome summed up: “In order for Germany to get back on track, we need to shift a gear higher.”
Interview with Nikolaus Blome
The head of Politics and Economics at RTL and n-tv in Berlin distributes scores for the federal government, assesses the usefulness of rescuing the internal combustion engine, chemistry and steel, and outlines how Chancellor Merz can put his coalition on the path forward.
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Interview with Christian Lindner
The former Federal Minister of Finance explains how structural reforms can succeed despite strong political and electoral opposition, what remains of his liberal vision and how he assesses the EU's role between integration and national flexibility.
We use our YouTube video channel to display the videos. The individual videos are embedded directly into our website using so-called "iFrame technology", but are only activated when you click the "Play" button.We embedded the YouTube videos in "data protection mode", so that, according to YouTube, only a technically necessary cookie is processed. Irrespective of this, the IP address used when visiting the site is transmitted to YouTube (Google) and, to our knowledge, also to the USA.If you are logged in to a Google service while viewing our videos (logged in ) are, Google can assign the viewing of the video and actions such as pausing, rewinding and fast-forwarding to your profile on Google. You can avoid this by logging out of Google services beforehand and deleting the relevant cookies.
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