“The Germans will only get out of this phase if we join hands and agree on common solutions,” the chancellor stressed
“The current crisis will not end in a few months (…) we are facing a historic challenge.” With these words the chancellor Olaf Solz prepares citizens for a long-term crisis with high prices. Employers’ president Rainer Dülger described the situation as Germany’s “hardest economic and socio-political crisis since reunification”.
Russia’s war in Ukraine and the disruption of supply chains due to the pandemic caused general uncertainty, Mr Solz said, after the government held talks with social partners as part of so-called “coordinated action” aimed at containing inflation. “We must be prepared that this situation will not change in the near future. We are facing a historic challenge. The Germans will only get out of this phase if we join hands and agree on joint solutions”, stressed Mr chancellor and referred to the reliefs that have already come into force, such as the single monthly ticket of 9 euros for MMMs and the discount on fuel.
Mr Solz was already quick yesterday to limit any expectations for the announcement of decisions after today’s meeting with the social partners and experts and the exchange of views that the government has started with the Bundesbank. As he said, other meetings will follow and the results of the consultations will be available in the autumn. “Society is sometimes much stronger than we think. The message that is important to me is that we are united,” he said.
On the workers’ side, its president German Trade Union Confederation (DGB) Yasmin Fahimi stated that households are affected by price increases as much as businesses. “Today’s situation is about securing employment and preventing a recession,” Ms Fahimi said.
But even the employers’ president, Rainer Dülger, admitted that steady economic growth, like the era before the pandemic and before the war in Ukraine, “is no longer even an issue”, but acknowledged that wages are not that moment factor of inflation. “Currently the drivers of inflation are mainly on the supply side – especially in terms of energy,” said Mr. Dulger and stressed that it is important in the context of coordinated government-social partner action that the autonomy of the collective bargaining. He also asked the politicians “to make sure that the net salaries remaining for the employees from the mixed ones are as large as possible”. We have difficult years ahead of us, he noted, pointing out at the same time that today’s opening meeting contributed to maintaining social peace.
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