{"id":372429,"date":"2025-08-25T13:40:18","date_gmt":"2025-08-25T13:40:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/372429\/"},"modified":"2025-08-25T13:40:18","modified_gmt":"2025-08-25T13:40:18","slug":"germanys-welfare-state-no-longer-financially-viable-%e2%94%81-the-european-conservative","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/372429\/","title":{"rendered":"Germany\u2019s Welfare State No Longer Financially Viable \u2501 The European Conservative"},"content":{"rendered":"

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has warned<\/a> that the welfare system in its current form \u201ccan no longer be financed with what we produce in the economy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking at a conference of his centre-right CDU party in Osnabr\u00fcck on Saturday, August 23rd, Merz demanded reforms to social spending while at the same time ruling out tax increases on Germany\u2019s medium-sized companies.<\/p>\n

He coupled his appeal with a grim assessment of the economy, declaring Germany to be in a \u201cstructural crisis\u201d after three years of recession and slipping industrial competitiveness.<\/p>\n

His declaration strikes at the core of a larger dispute between the CDU\/CSU alliance and its coalition partner, the Social Democrats (SPD), on how to plug a \u20ac172 billion budget deficit<\/a> while safeguarding Germany\u2019s health insurance, pensions, and unemployment benefits.<\/p>\n

The SPD, historically the defender of the welfare state, has insisted that any reforms must protect vulnerable workers, and despite Merz\u2019s insistence<\/a>, his vice chancellor, SPD leader Lars Klingbeil, has not ruled out tax increases on middle- and higher-income earners.<\/p>\n

Both parties want to avoid losing any more voters, as opinion polls suggest the government is immensely unpopular.<\/p>\n

According to a new INSA poll, 62% of Germans are dissatisfied<\/a> with the coalition\u2019s performance, the highest level since Merz took office in May, and an 18-point increase in disapproval since June. Only 26% expressed approval. Merz himself fares little better, with 57% dissatisfied with his leadership.<\/p>\n

The so-called grand coalition of the CDU\/CSU and SPD would no longer command a majority in parliament if there was an election today: the two political forces would receive 25% and 15% of the votes, respectively.<\/p>\n

The right-wing opposition Alternative f\u00fcr Deutschland (AfD) is also polling at 25%.<\/p>\n

The chancellor has attempted to manoeuvre carefully, appealing both to his leftist partners and to conservative voters who have drifted towards the AfD.<\/p>\n

On the one hand, he stressed on Saturday that Germany will remain a country that protects those in need; on the other, he insists there will be no increase in tax on medium-sized companies.<\/p>\n

The formulation, according to conservative outlet Apollo News, left open the possibility of other tax hikes<\/a>, a fact not lost on critics who accuse Merz of issuing deliberately vague pledges after breaking a series of earlier promises.<\/p>\n

Among them is his repeated pledge to adopt a stricter stance on migration. Yet his previous backtracking on migration policy has eroded trust among his conservative base.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has warned that the welfare system in its current form \u201ccan no longer be…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":372430,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5310],"tags":[2000,299,1824],"class_list":{"0":"post-372429","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-germany","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-germany"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115089691387394570","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=372429"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372429\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/372430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=372429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=372429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=372429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}