Friedrich Merz, Germany's chancellor, takes the chancellor's seat, after swearing an oath, at the Bundestag in Berlin, Germany, on Tuesday, May 6, 2025. Photographer: Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg
BERLIN: Germany’s soul-searching over how to revive its moribund economy is running into a hard truth: a sprawling welfare state is part of the problem.
After loosening the country’s constitutional debt brake and embarking on massive rearmament, the question of how to tackle relentlessly increasing social spending, with its associated burden on employers, is becoming the next bone of contention for Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s coalition.
