Yeah, right.
Things continue not to go so well in what was once the industrial powerhouse of Europe, and the flailing little con artist who is in the chancellor's seat at the moment, master of the Old Maggo Friedrich Merz, is planning on conjuring up yet more promises to break with his fall offensive on his diving popularity.
Or is it just offensive?
'Bold reforms,' he says. 'That should have begun long ago.' And quite possibly might have, had he not started breaking campaign promises before the ink on ballots was even dry.
But he's going to give it another shot and hope someone in the dwindling crowd of supporters will cheer for him.
In a belated 2025 budget debate in the German parliament on Wednesday, Chancellor Friedrich Merz said that he plans to implement “bold reforms” but offered little detail.
The conservative chancellor promised an “autumn of reforms” to reinvigorate Europe’s largest economy, which is currently floundering through a third straight year without growth, in remarks to Germany’s parliament in Berlin on Wednesday.
“It’s about nothing less than the future of our country,” he said, vowing to deliver “bold reforms” that “should have begun long ago”.
Stagnation and job losses in key German sectors, particularly the chemicals and car industries, have raised fears of long-term economic decline for the country.
Merz promised to deliver far-reaching pension reforms, a more pragmatic and industry-friendly energy policy and welfare changes that will push more adults into the labour force as part of an autumn push.
It's kind of hard for Germans to feel optimistic, even with the government doing their best to obfuscate the true extent of the crisis and demonize their populist and increasingly popular opposition.
The job losses alone are stunning in their breadth and scope.
It has been a brutal month and a half.
WTF is happening in Germany?!
— Amanda Goodall (@thejobchick) September 16, 2025
Germany announced 125,000 industrial job cuts in 6 weeks.
Putting that into perspective... If the U.S. got hit at the same rate, that’s like ~300,000 factory jobs or ~500,000 total jobs gone in a month and a half.
Picture every factory worker in…
...Putting that into perspective... If the U.S. got hit at the same rate, that’s like ~300,000 factory jobs or ~500,000 total jobs gone in a month and a half.
Picture every factory worker in a state like South Carolina unemployed.
That’s the scale.
Recent layoffs announced in Germany:
Auto & Auto Supplier Layoffs (past 12 months):
• Volkswagen: 35,000
• Mercedes-Benz: 40,000
• Audi: 7,500
• Ford (Saarlouis): 2,900
• Daimler Truck: 5,000
• ZF Group: 14,000
• Bosch, Continental, Schaeffler (combined): 7,000
→ Total: 111,400 auto jobs impacted
Steel & Heavy Industry Layoffs:
• Thyssenkrupp: 11,000 (≈40% of workforce)
Rail & Transport Layoffs:
• Deutsche Bahn: 30,000
• DB Cargo (subsidiary): 5,000
Postal & Logistics Layoffs:
• Deutsche Post: 8,000...
Sure, there are retail and international supply chain pressures, but the cost of German energy alone is driving businesses to retrench.
As one German commenter on the post nailed it:
"It's not just auto, the complete industrial base is crumbling. Energy costs are roughly double the US rates (retail power >40ct/kWh and gas over 7 USD per gallon) and some are calling it the Green Deal?" Spot on.
Then there is the strain of millions of immigrants sucking the life out of the country, which is very nearly the first promise Merz broke upon winning the election.
He didn't deport anyone.
Merz: The German welfare state "can no longer be financed with what we produce in the economy"
— eugyppius (@eugyppius1) August 25, 2025
With only very few exceptions, mass democracies cannot decrease spending. The reasons for this are obvious. The ratchet only goes in the direction of more, and then even more, and then… pic.twitter.com/zsxUgvu1ge
...Nobody yet knows what will happen in elaborate social welfare states like Germany, which face demographic decline, self-inflicted economic chaos and a growing inability to fund their social systems. We're at a moment that has been predicted for decades, and for which nobody has even tried to offer any kind of solution. Pension schemes and public health insurance are already collapsing before our eyes.
Our clueless political class have increased the intensity of this inevitable catastrophe while also inducing its earlier onset. They have done this by importing millions of foreigners as an added strain on the system, and by destroying the economy with expensive energy in a mad and totally futile attempt to rebalance the proportions of atmospheric gases.
This issue is very likely to destroy Germany's present government, and it will probably destroy whatever government takes charge after them. This might be the thing in the end that totally wipes out our political system, that is how serious this is.
All this has served to bolster the credibility and increase the popularity of Alice Weidel's Alternative for Germany (AfD) as the only answer left for what ails the country. The populist and increasingly popular party continues to gain in polling.
AfD consolidating its spot as Germany's #1 political force.
— Jo Bhakdi (@JOBhakdi) September 17, 2025
Also, LOVE the CDU colors, it's so fitting. Vielfalt pur! Diversity is definitely their strength. They have created a kunterbuntes Deutschland with a knife surprise on every corner. https://t.co/DLNnbuELYX
Weidel has been unrelenting in her attacks on Merz's feckless leadership.
🇩🇪Alice Weidel exposes the state of modern Germany:
— Adam Moczar (@AdamMoczar) September 11, 2025
"Mass migration, exploding crime, high taxes, silenced dissent. The regime wants to ban the strongest opposition party- us, the AfD. This is grotesque. This is authoritarian. But, they will not prevail." pic.twitter.com/fuWCVVbUHB
In recent regional elections, the AfD again scored gains in seats, much to the chagrin of the Brussels Brahmins holding their collective breaths. These were in areas not known as AfD strongholds, and yet the populist party tripled its former number of seats.
Bad, but it could have been worse. That’s the view in Brussels on the election results in the German industrial state of North Rhine-Westphalia yesterday, which saw the far-right Alternative for Germany triple its support. The AfD increased its share of the vote by 9.4 percentage points to 14.5%, according to official preliminary results.
The municipal contests in Germany’s most populous state were the first electoral test for German leader Friedrich Merz, who has faced headwinds since taking the chancellorship in May. His party held up relatively well. Though the Christian Democratic Union fell 1 point to 33.3%, it remains the dominant political force in the state, once a bastion of the center-left Social Democrats.
The results sealed a long decline for the SPD, which lost another 2.2% to secure 22.1%, while the Greens put in a dismal performance.
Still, while it tripled its vote since the last municipal ballots, the AfD fell short of the 16.4% share it received in the state in the federal election in February. But the results show that the anti-immigration party co-led by Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla continues to make political inroads outside its core support base in the east of Germany.
Something is very wrong with Germany.
There is something wrong with Germany.
— BitDecoder (@BitDecoder) September 17, 2025
The answer is not more of the same.
It looks like the next German government will be black blue.
— Michael A. Arouet (@MichaelAArouet) September 16, 2025
Just kidding, of course it will be another left government offering nothing else than more debt and higher taxes.
How is it possible? pic.twitter.com/k6ZPYLRfcg
But that's what they always seem to get, no matter how they vote.
That's weird in a 'democracy,' isn't it?
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