EDITORIAL. In the general debate on the 2026 budget on September 24, 2025, Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) gave a 26-minute defense speech to the German Bundestag, which turned out to be a helpless plea for "real reforms." Instead of concrete plans to establish Germany as an innovation power, he presented vague announcements on economic growth and social reforms that ignore the impending collapse of Germany as a business location. The debate, the highlight of the budget week, revealed Merz's failure: under his leadership, the economy is stagnating, while competitors like the USA and China are exploding in AI, green technology, and digitalization. Hard facts underscore the disaster – and Merz's rhetoric seems like a desperate attempt to cover up his own incompetence.
The speech: Defensive, lacking substance, out of touch with reality
Merz began with a bleak diagnosis: Germany is in the "most challenging phase of recent history," threatened by geopolitical tensions, energy prices, and bureaucratic hurdles. He announced a cabinet retreat where "only competitiveness and state modernization" would be discussed, and promised 100 billion euros for state investments in schools and daycare centers. However, he only superficially addressed innovation – the core of a modern economy: He mentioned "technological developments" as a solution for climate protection and growth without naming a single measurable goal. Instead, he attacked opposition parties like the Greens and the Left as obstructive forces and appealed to the citizens: "We can do this." The reaction in the plenary was lukewarm: many members of parliament left the hall, and critics like Britta Haßelmann (Greens) accused him of having fled to the UN General Assembly in New York himself to avoid the debate.
This defensiveness fits Merz's approval ratings: According to the RTL/ntv trend barometer of September 23, 2025, 70 percent of Germans are dissatisfied with him – an all-time low that brands his government as a "debt coalition" (AfD criticism). Alice Weidel (AfD) dismantled the budget draft as a "betrayal" of the citizens, while SPD members of parliament like Heike Heubach (the first deaf member of the Bundestag) symbolically represented the government's social ignorance. Merz's speech was not a change of course, but an admission of guilt: he conceded that "structures must be changed" but named no deadlines or budgets for innovation funding.
The innovation failure: Facts Merz must ignore
德国曾是出口冠军，但在默茨（2025年5月起任总理）的领导下，其创新优势正在迅速丧失。残酷的现实是：2025年迄今，GDP增长率仅为可怜的0.2%——轻度衰退，原因是能源价格高企（工业用电高达0.40欧元/千瓦时）、官僚主义盛行（项目平均审批时间：7年）以及缺乏数字化投资。在2024年全球创新指数（最新可用数据）中，德国滑至第九位——落后于瑞士、瑞典和荷兰，但尤其落后于韩国（第五位）和美国（第三位），它们在人工智能专利和生物技术领域占据主导地位。德国每年仅授予全球1.2%的人工智能专利，而中国则占40%，美国占25%。
企业纷纷发声：在2025年9月22日举行的“秘密峰会”上，与会企业高管（包括德国工业联合会BDI、德国风能协会BWE等）要求在减少官僚主义和批评欧盟方面“加快步伐”——默茨的回应是“我们正全力以赴”，但没有具体措施。由61家公司（包括宝马、SAP、英伟达等）组成的“德国制造”倡议宣布到2028年投资6310亿欧元，但克莱门斯·富斯特（ifo研究所所长）等专家认为这只是公关噱头，而非转折点：许多项目早已规划，而占公司总数99%、占就业岗位60%的中小企业却缺席，因为它们正遭受不断上涨的社会保障缴款（高达工资成本的50%）和未能实现的减税（如降低用电税）之苦。前自由民主党主席克里斯蒂安·林德纳批评道：默茨的峰会是“短视”，忽视了作为创新引擎的中小企业。
默茨与游说集团的亲近加剧了失败：作为巴斯夫和贝莱德（年收入百万欧元）的前律师，他优先考虑大公司，而非广泛的创新。他批评的欧盟供应链指令（EUDR）据他所说阻碍了增长——但没有它，供应链就缺乏透明度，这会吓跑投资者。结果：2025年，15%的高科技工作岗位流失（例如流向爱尔兰），研发支出降至GDP的3.1%——低于经合组织3.5%的平均水平。默茨的“改革之秋”是一场闹剧：没有人工智能促进议程（美国每年投资1000亿美元），没有真正的数字税减免，没有规划加速（例如风力发电场：审批需要10年）。
毫不留情的总结：默茨是刹车者，而非助推者
政治上的智慧意味着不仅要指出问题，还要解决问题。梅尔茨在这方面失败了：他的演讲是无能为力的宣言，让德国进一步失去了作为创新强国的地位。他没有采取大胆的措施——例如立即向人工智能中心投资500亿欧元或激进地削减官僚主义（例如“一证通办”法案）——而是乞求耐心，而经济界却焦躁不安。后果是：如果梅尔茨的“全速前进”继续冒烟，到2028年，工业界可能损失200万个工作岗位。德国不需要演讲，而是需要行动。梅尔茨的失败是系统性的——并且正在让我们付出未来的代价。
