Mercedes-Benz has frozen all new investments across its German sites and warned of potential factory closures amid high domestic operating costs and deadlocked union negotiations. In an internal workforce interview released on Thursday, production chief Michael Schiebe confirmed the executive board’s decision, stating the carmaker must evaluate which domestic plants could face closure without structural cost reductions. Human resources director Britta Seeger described the closure risk as a concrete option after intensive talks with employee representatives failed to yield a breakthrough. Chief executive Ola Källenius defended the freeze, noting foreign locations offer lower expenses and longer annual working hours, while urging European policymakers to address rising energy and regulatory burdens.
Germany has dropped in global climate protection rankings for the third consecutive year, falling to 25th place in its worst performance since 2019. Compiled by Germanwatch and the NewClimate Institute, the annual Climate Change Performance Index evaluates 64 countries and the European Union, with Germany receiving a medium overall rating. Lead author Jan Burck blamed Germany’s poorest-ever score in national climate policy on Economy Minister Katherina Reiche’s focus on expanding natural gas, warning that such measures threaten renewables and electrification. With the top three index spots left vacant because no country is meeting global climate targets, Denmark led all assessed nations in fourth place.
French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Thursday appeared to dismiss the urgency to name a representative for Europe in talks between Ukraine and Russia after calls from Washington and Kyiv. At a meeting of European leaders in Dublin, Macron stated that Europe needs a clear and united vision and that content determines the format. Merz told reporters it was first necessary to get Russian President Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table before deciding if an envoy was needed, while welcoming Russia's growing willingness to acknowledge that Europe cannot be talked about without Europe. Representatives from Britain, France, Germany and Italy were present on the sidelines of talks in Abu Dhabi this week, and Merz backed continuing in that format with the addition of Poland.
German industrial giant Siemens said Thursday that the midterm elections rout for US President Donald Trump's Republicans is unlikely to slow the AI boom as it reported record profits boosted by data centre demand. Speaking on an earnings call, Siemens CEO Roland Busch said the company was banking on the boom carrying on even if the elections showed growing opposition to data centres. Busch noted there is bipartisan acknowledgment that a big driver of economic growth in the United States is data centres, adding that nothing worries the company for the next couple of years. US tech giants have invested hundreds of billions of dollars in AI data centres, boosting fortunes for companies like Siemens that make electrical and cooling equipment.
Satisfaction with democracy in Germany has fallen to a record low as antisemitism, nationalism, and support for authoritarian rule rise, according to a major study presented in Berlin on Wednesday. Conducted biennially since 2002 by the University of Leipzig’s Else Frenkel-Brunswik Institute, the survey of 2,507 respondents found approval of democracy as an ideal dropped below 90 percent for the first time. Only one-third of Germans are satisfied with how democracy functions in everyday life, with discontent especially pronounced in eastern states. Consequently, 22.3 percent of respondents, rising to 30.9 percent in the former East, support a single strong party embodying the national community, with study author Oliver Decker warning that an authoritarian yearning is alarmingly replacing democratic acceptance.
Source: The Local. Read the original report ↗