{"id":8370,"date":"2026-04-29T02:07:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T02:07:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/8370\/"},"modified":"2026-04-29T02:07:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T02:07:09","slug":"merz-lashes-out-at-trump-and-brussels-as-germanys-economy-falters-politico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/8370\/","title":{"rendered":"Merz lashes out at Trump and Brussels as Germany\u2019s economy falters \u2013 POLITICO"},"content":{"rendered":"

Merz\u2019s attacks on Brussels are part of a bid to placate German industry leaders, who blame excessive EU regulation for a loss of competitiveness. Four in five German firms complain that bureaucracy has increased over the past three years, according to a survey of 1,000 companies by the German Economic Institute<\/a>. More than 90 percent want EU rules scaled back.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnly as a strong economic hub can we be a strong international player,\u201d Stefan Berger, a German conservative MEP focused on the economy, told POLITICO. \u201cIn this situation, it makes sense to look to Brussels, scrutinize some existing regulations and cut through unnecessary red tape so that European companies can focus more on production and less on paperwork.\u201d<\/p>\n

Merz\u2019s attempts to pin the blame abroad have a great deal to do with his limited domestic options and sinking popularity. The chancellor this week, for the first time, fell to last place in polling firm INSA\u2019s popularity ranking of Germany\u2019s 20 most prominent politicians<\/a>. Meanwhile, only 15 percent of Germans said they are satisfied with Merz\u2019s centrist coalition, according to Germany\u2019s benchmark ARD-DeutschlandTrend poll<\/a> released early this month, a new low.<\/p>\n

As dissatisfaction with Merz\u2019s government grows, the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party \u2014\u00a0which has been hitting the government hard on the economy and high energy prices \u2014 has surged to new heights in polls, and is now the most popular force in German politics, according to POLITICO\u2019s Poll of Polls<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party has surged to new heights in polls. | Heiko Rebsch\/picture alliance via Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u2018The cause lies with us\u2019<\/p>\n

The trouble for Merz is that he has no easy domestic political options for immediately stimulating Germany\u2019s export-oriented economy in the face of strong global headwinds that have hampered growth, from the conflicts in Iran and Ukraine to Trump\u2019s trade wars. Last week the German economy ministry slashed its growth forecasts<\/a> for 2026 and 2027, citing the fallout of the war in the Middle East.<\/p>\n

A historic move by Merz and his allies\u00a0to unleash hundreds of billions of euros in borrowing for infrastructure and defense<\/a>\u00a0last year \u2014 widely referred to as an economic \u201cbazooka\u201d at the time \u2014 failed to produce the economic blast many in his centrist coalition had hoped for.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Merz\u2019s attacks on Brussels are part of a bid to placate German industry leaders, who blame excessive EU…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8371,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[309,1379,7629,420,479,8180,1607,2697,1646,446,393,5,689,5485,616,3523,3012,253,1750,2700,4734,481,1019,2379],"class_list":{"0":"post-8370","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-germany","8":"tag-budget","9":"tag-companies","10":"tag-competitiveness","11":"tag-defense","12":"tag-donald-trump","13":"tag-economic-performance","14":"tag-elections","15":"tag-elections-in-europe","16":"tag-energy","17":"tag-energy-prices","18":"tag-friedrich-merz","19":"tag-germany","20":"tag-growth","21":"tag-health-care","22":"tag-industry","23":"tag-infrastructure","24":"tag-investment","25":"tag-iran","26":"tag-olaf-scholz","27":"tag-pensions","28":"tag-regulation","29":"tag-united-states","30":"tag-ursula-von-der-leyen","31":"tag-war-in-iran"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8370"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8370\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8371"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}