Chancellor Friedrich Merz came to the trade union congress advocating painful social reforms. However, he earned whistles and boos from the delegates for calls for cooperation.
Federal Chancellor Friedrich Merz advocated for sweeping social reforms at the German Trade Union Congress (DGB), earning boos and boos. With an appeal to see the reform process as an opportunity and not a threat and to actively participate in it, it barely gained ground among the approximately 400 congress delegates, the DPA agency stated, writes TASR.
- At the DGB congress, Friedrich Merz advocated extensive social reforms and modernization of Germany.
- Congress delegates responded to his reform plans with squeals, boos and shouts.
- Merz warned that prosperity cannot be sustained in Germany without economic growth.
Merz was the first Christian Democratic chancellor to address the DGB congress in eight years. The last time Angela Merkel did so was in 2018. In recent years, trade unionists at their congress also booed her for, for example, raising the retirement age to 67, the agency noted.
A call for modernization
The Chancellor emphasized that prosperity cannot be ensured for Germany without economic growth. According to him, “incisive reforms” are needed for this.
“We simply failed to modernize our country,” he declared, underlining that “Germany must therefore rise.” In this context, he pointed out that business initiatives and activities must be encouraged because “we simply cannot continue as we have for the past 20 years”.
Criticism of pension plans
When Merz described measures to reduce the costs of statutory health insurance, which the federal government had already decided, the first beeps, boos and shouts were heard, DPA noted. The chancellor called the pension reform planned for the summer “the hardest nut to crack”. He defended it by saying that there is no malice on his part or on the part of the government, but it is “demography and mathematics”.
The head of the German government appealed to the trade unions to join the reforms. “We need this joint search for ways that will move our country forward,” Merz emphasized at the DGB congress.
