Germany is at risk of becoming a “museum of prosperity”, a business chief warned, as train drivers launched their longest ever strike amid tensions over the country’s finances.
Rainer Dulger, the president of Germany’s Confederation of Employer Associations, claimed businesses had lost trust in Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s coalition, which he accused of having “failed across the board”.
“We must be careful that we don’t go from being the engine of the EU to a museum of prosperity,” he said.
“Our neighbours are looking at us with worry. It hurts me to see how low Germany has sunk in the last two years,” Mr Dulger added.
His comments on Wednesday were the latest sign of mounting frustration with Mr Scholz’s government over its handling of the economy and came as German train drivers began a six-day strike over pay and working conditions.
The walkout marks the longest industrial action in the national railway’s history.
It began at 2am on Wednesday for passenger trains and will start on Thursday evening for freight trains, amid warnings that the latter action will exacerbate turmoil along trade routes already badly-affected by the Red Sea shipping crisis.
GDL, the German train workers’ union, is trying to secure a 550 euro (£470) per month wage increase, a decrease in working hours and compensation to account for inflation.
In response, Deutsche Bahn has accused the union of “holding the country hostage.”
The strike comes after thousands of farmers blockaded city centres and motorways across Germany earlier this month in protest at proposals to gradually phase out agricultural diesel subsidies.
Mr Scholz’s government has also been bruised by a December budget crisis, in which a shock court ruling blocked ministers from spending pandemic-era funds on future projects, resulting in a 17 billion euro hole for 2024.
A last-minute deal in his three-way coalition with the Greens and FDP secured the funds, but depended on pushing through unpopular cost-saving measures.
I will never get, ticket prices rise every year, products in supermarket, electricity, heat. But everyone has a problem when workers demanding higher pay…
What did the Germans think would happen after those pipes have been blown away by their allies?
Does he read any financial statistics? The middle class is already fading away since at least ten years.
yep and the solution will be.. higher taxes!
Germany needs to wake up from its sleep and start some real reforms, but I dont think that anyone really wants to
Ah of course the fucking Telegraph.
How big of a problem is this? Germans have among the lowest birth rates by european standards and without immigration itd be the lowest in the world after japan and s.korea
It makes sense to turn the country into a museum if theres little plans for the future
No more desire to grow. We have enough growth problems.
Says Dulger,
This guy is a moron who treats his worker like horseshit like for example unequal payment for workers, union busting or lying and then is wondering why people are looking for other better jobs and tries to lobotomise labour rights.
I hate that the narrative from the neoliberals is that the union strike is the reason/ symbol that the Economy is struggling. It’s the other way around! strong unions with strong labor fights get strong salary increases which stimulates the markets. Because people have some money to spend, especially in countries like Germany where consumer spending is low in comparison to similar countries. In Germany which does not want to invest because of the Schuldenbremse, for dumb reasons, those air pump economist should cheer every fucking strike. Only way to increase growth. “but that will make the products more expensive ” That’s the nice part you don’t have to increase the labor cost of the whole company, you just have to allocate it better. Best example the DB, the top mangers got like a 1 million bonus plus a 14% raise last year. Also increases for the hundreds of higher managers. There is Money, but fuck Hans and Ali who do the work, the big boss Maximilian Tobias von Pisswasser needs another villa on the virgin island.
Blame the idiotic war America dragged Europe into – the war with Russia, Europe’s chief supplier of energy and resources. But Europeans today are so arrogant and disconnected from reality that they do not see the causality. They consider themselves better, because they are “democrats”, and all other countries just have to roll over and cough up cheap resources and labor, or else….
So without the cheap oil flowing reliably through pipes, German auto industry lost competitiveness. And it’s forever – the flows are now redirected eastward, and those resources will never come as easily and cheap again. But as is the way of the rich and privileged, they shift the burden of getting poor on the weak and defenseless – hence the erosion of the social contract, and growing unrest.
And it will only get worse, and Europe has only itself to blame.
I like that photograph. So many trains.
They deserve it.
German success was built upon cheap Russian resources.Without it, Germany is screwed.
Price-Wage spiral is striking recession Europe.
Germans are really good at hyperbole, they should try exporting that!
Jeez few months of Germany stagnating and everybody is shitting their pants.
No worries, we’ve been stagnating for decades and pizza is always very good!
Fucking bullshit. Unions and workers organizing is NOT what ruins prosperity. It’s the fact that the governments of the last 30 years have been asleep at the wheel.
Wasn’t Russian economy supposed to go down from sanctions resulting in mass strikes and loss of popular support for the government? Instead, Scholz is polling at 30%. Only one way to fix the German economy – send more weapons and €€€ to The Ukraine
19 comments
***The Telegraph reports:***
Germany is at risk of becoming a “museum of prosperity”, a business chief warned, as train drivers launched their longest ever strike amid tensions over the country’s finances.
Rainer Dulger, the president of Germany’s Confederation of Employer Associations, claimed businesses had lost trust in Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s coalition, which he accused of having “failed across the board”.
“We must be careful that we don’t go from being the engine of the EU to a museum of prosperity,” he said.
“Our neighbours are looking at us with worry. It hurts me to see how low Germany has sunk in the last two years,” Mr Dulger added.
His comments on Wednesday were the latest sign of mounting frustration with Mr Scholz’s government over its handling of the economy and came as German train drivers began a six-day strike over pay and working conditions.
The walkout marks the longest industrial action in the national railway’s history.
It began at 2am on Wednesday for passenger trains and will start on Thursday evening for freight trains, amid warnings that the latter action will exacerbate turmoil along trade routes already badly-affected by the Red Sea shipping crisis.
GDL, the German train workers’ union, is trying to secure a 550 euro (£470) per month wage increase, a decrease in working hours and compensation to account for inflation.
In response, Deutsche Bahn has accused the union of “holding the country hostage.”
The strike comes after thousands of farmers blockaded city centres and motorways across Germany earlier this month in protest at proposals to gradually phase out agricultural diesel subsidies.
Mr Scholz’s government has also been bruised by a December budget crisis, in which a shock court ruling blocked ministers from spending pandemic-era funds on future projects, resulting in a 17 billion euro hole for 2024.
A last-minute deal in his three-way coalition with the Greens and FDP secured the funds, but depended on pushing through unpopular cost-saving measures.
**Read more: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/01/24/germany-museum-of-prosperity-business-chief-strikes-budget/**
I will never get, ticket prices rise every year, products in supermarket, electricity, heat. But everyone has a problem when workers demanding higher pay…
What did the Germans think would happen after those pipes have been blown away by their allies?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OS4O8rGRLf8
Does he read any financial statistics? The middle class is already fading away since at least ten years.
yep and the solution will be.. higher taxes!
Germany needs to wake up from its sleep and start some real reforms, but I dont think that anyone really wants to
Ah of course the fucking Telegraph.
How big of a problem is this? Germans have among the lowest birth rates by european standards and without immigration itd be the lowest in the world after japan and s.korea
It makes sense to turn the country into a museum if theres little plans for the future
No more desire to grow. We have enough growth problems.
Says Dulger,
This guy is a moron who treats his worker like horseshit like for example unequal payment for workers, union busting or lying and then is wondering why people are looking for other better jobs and tries to lobotomise labour rights.
I hate that the narrative from the neoliberals is that the union strike is the reason/ symbol that the Economy is struggling. It’s the other way around! strong unions with strong labor fights get strong salary increases which stimulates the markets. Because people have some money to spend, especially in countries like Germany where consumer spending is low in comparison to similar countries. In Germany which does not want to invest because of the Schuldenbremse, for dumb reasons, those air pump economist should cheer every fucking strike. Only way to increase growth. “but that will make the products more expensive ” That’s the nice part you don’t have to increase the labor cost of the whole company, you just have to allocate it better. Best example the DB, the top mangers got like a 1 million bonus plus a 14% raise last year. Also increases for the hundreds of higher managers. There is Money, but fuck Hans and Ali who do the work, the big boss Maximilian Tobias von Pisswasser needs another villa on the virgin island.
Blame the idiotic war America dragged Europe into – the war with Russia, Europe’s chief supplier of energy and resources. But Europeans today are so arrogant and disconnected from reality that they do not see the causality. They consider themselves better, because they are “democrats”, and all other countries just have to roll over and cough up cheap resources and labor, or else….
So without the cheap oil flowing reliably through pipes, German auto industry lost competitiveness. And it’s forever – the flows are now redirected eastward, and those resources will never come as easily and cheap again. But as is the way of the rich and privileged, they shift the burden of getting poor on the weak and defenseless – hence the erosion of the social contract, and growing unrest.
And it will only get worse, and Europe has only itself to blame.
I like that photograph. So many trains.
They deserve it.
German success was built upon cheap Russian resources.Without it, Germany is screwed.
Price-Wage spiral is striking recession Europe.
Germans are really good at hyperbole, they should try exporting that!
Jeez few months of Germany stagnating and everybody is shitting their pants.
No worries, we’ve been stagnating for decades and pizza is always very good!
Fucking bullshit. Unions and workers organizing is NOT what ruins prosperity. It’s the fact that the governments of the last 30 years have been asleep at the wheel.
Wasn’t Russian economy supposed to go down from sanctions resulting in mass strikes and loss of popular support for the government? Instead, Scholz is polling at 30%. Only one way to fix the German economy – send more weapons and €€€ to The Ukraine