from Hacker News

Germany government collapses at a perilous time for Europe

by gz5 on 12/16/24, 3:55 PM with 121 comments

• by jcfrei on 12/16/24, 5:04 PM

  There's a whole bunch of stuff happening that collectively hurts the German economy:

  - German economy is heavy on manufacturing: Part of their success was cheap raw materials (oil, gas, etc.) from Russia. That edge has disappeared thanks to the war in Ukraine.

  - More competition from China: China is moving up the value chain in manufacturing, competing with Germany in previous strongholds. Lowers margins for lots of German companies.

  - At the same time subdued demand from China itself: A large part of growth - esp. in the automotive section - came from China. Domestic manufacturers of EVs have now better offers than Germany, meaning it's losing market share.

  - Misguided energy politics: With an unnecessary exit from Nuclear energy (German nuclear power plants were among the most reliable ones). Driving up energy costs just at the moment when gas is already in short supply due to sanctions on Russia.

  Will any new Government fix all these issues? Unlikely, they are structurally too deeply a part of the German economic model that a new Gov. could change them (except for restarting Nuclear power plants - but that seems unlikely atm).

• by ximm on 12/16/24, 4:32 PM

  For context: Losing this vote was intended. The government already fell apart in November, so this is the next formal step towards new elections.

• by sylware on 12/16/24, 4:23 PM

  Oh! It is going to be the circus over there too (I am french).

• by andersa on 12/16/24, 4:39 PM

  Maybe now we can elect a new government who will actually use their brains. That would be something.

• by itzehoe on 12/16/24, 4:39 PM

  Anyone with a link without the paywall? I see only one snapshot on web.archive but it doesn't work so well..

• by rayiner on 12/16/24, 4:53 PM

  The stoplight coalition is incoherent. You can't have socialists, greens, and neoliberals in the same party. The only thing they can agree on is more immigration, and that's not going to make voters happy.

  CDU should just agree to work with AfD in return for some bright lines excluding the most extreme stuff.

• by 01200981480 on 12/19/24, 6:48 PM

  X5555

• by monero-xmr on 12/16/24, 4:45 PM

  The only way Germany reboots their economy is if they ditch the disaster the Greens implemented in regards to energy policy, drastically slash red tape and bureaucracy, stop the industrial policy that favors old-economy manufacturing, and promote entrepreneurship and new companies.

  But that's the playbook for France and the UK, and all of Europe. I think it will take 10+ more years of slow-grind reductions in their standard of living for Europe to change its ways.

• by JKCalhoun on 12/16/24, 4:29 PM

  Why does it feel like "interesting times" lay ahead....

• by cyberpunk on 12/16/24, 4:46 PM

  It’s quite depressing how weak with SPD and CDU policies are at a time when we should have something more to say to AfD than “more of the same”.

  CDU’s policy document this week is likely to keep the debt brake which is actively preventing any meaningful investment in infrastructure here.

  So the Germany economy can die while being in perfect health. Super.

• by jajko on 12/16/24, 4:36 PM

  I don't follow him and his policies closely but whatever I caught in various types of media was just bad news. Germany's car manufacturers can potentially lose few million jobs if they go belly up, VW will definitely be closing at least few factories and the rest ain't in best shape neither. Does anybody know something positive on this guy?

  Existential threat almost at the door yet 0 reaction, Germany is still massively under mandatory NATO 2% contributions and 0 attempt to get there. Wehrmacht is a joke considering size of the country.

  He didn't turn around Merkel's horrible energy policies while whole world was just watching in awe how it unfolded. Nothing about semi-permanent migrant crisis.

  Really, german population deserves much better leaders than him or Merkel, these are tough times and weak leaders lead to degradation of not only economy, plus it spills all over EU.