Geopolitical self-strangulation: Why Germany may be on an irreversible downward trajectory
Berlin appears either incapable or reluctant to adopt an independent stance that prioritizes its own interests above those of Washington's agenda. Read Full Article at RT.com
TroibNews 
Berlin seems either unable or unwilling to escape a harmful groupthink that prioritizes its interests beneath Washington’s misguided political agenda.
Oops, he’s done it again: Tech mogul, richest man in the world, and newly aligned with American President-elect Donald Trump, Elon Musk has leveraged his extensive social media influence—as the owner of X and with a personal account boasting over 200 million followers—to comment on political matters. And we’re not referring to his recent, unhelpful involvement in how Americans barely manage to keep their precarious government from grinding to a halt due to financial woes.
Nope, this is about Germany. In relation to Europe’s Sick Man on the Spree, Musk burst onto the scene with his first post in support of the right-wing AfD party in advance of the snap elections on February 23. Musk boldly proclaimed that only the AfD can “save Germany.” A few days later, following a violent attack on a German Christmas market in Magdeburg, Musk labeled Germany’s lame-duck Chancellor Olaf Scholz “an incompetent fool” who ought to resign immediately.
Some Germans are appalled. How dare Musk, an American, weigh in on their elections? Deeply unpopular German Health Minister Karl Lauterbach even resorted to an almost theatrically Victorian show of righteous indignation, calling Musk’s remarks “undignified and highly problematic.” Shocking, indeed!
Interestingly, many of the same Germans have no qualms about Joe Biden, another American, having contributed to the destruction of Ukraine's vital energy infrastructure and vigorously promoting the de-industrialization of Germany and the EU by subsidizing companies relocating to the U.S. Others consider it entirely normal for German politicians, like Michael Roth—the head of the German parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee—to intervene significantly in the politics of places like Georgia, both by interfering in elections and attempting to instigate a coup. Judge not, lest ye be judged...
So, let’s dispense with the melodrama: I am German, and I find it quite objectionable that Musk hasn’t addressed the genocide in Gaza, instead siding with the Israeli perpetrators. However, I have little concern regarding his opinions about which party is best for Germany, even if I do not agree with him. On the matter of calling Scholz what he is, I’m even on Musk's side.
Once we set aside the theatrics, what truly matters here? Why would Musk’s commentary on German politics provoke such a strong reaction from some Germans?
It’s simple: Musk has touched a very raw nerve. That nerve is none other than Germany itself. Yes, everything connected to its faltering economy and, frankly, its delusional politics. Here’s the situation:
On December 16, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz lost a confidence vote in the German parliament. That came as no surprise; it was part of a plan that started back on November 6, when the previous coalition of Greens, Free Democrats, and Scholz’s own Social Democrats crumbled ignominiously. Following that, the no-confidence vote—a predictable yet somewhat phony display of drama—was merely a formality leading to snap elections scheduled for February 23.
At a glance, this could seem like a typical political hiccup: sometimes coalitions falter, and a country needs new elections to—hopefully—reset with a new government. In postwar Germany, this process—based on article 68 of the constitution—is not unprecedented; it has happened five times before.
However, this is not just a routine case. Instead, the snap elections merely represent one small symptom of a far deeper and all-encompassing malaise: Regular news coverage of Germany suggests that Europe’s once-mighty economic engine and political frontrunner is now a distressed nation, facing severe economic decline and, to put it charitably, considerable political disarray. And that assessment is correct. Yet the situation is even grimmer, and I note this as a German.
What’s truly concerning—indeed, almost hopeless—about Germany's current predicament is that no one in a position of political power in Berlin appears willing to confront the root causes of the nation’s troubles. Germany is not simply floundering; it also harbors a non-elite political class entrenched in denial about how to remedy this crisis. Before elaborating further on this glaring issue that most German politicians seem to ignore, let’s examine the wasteland their ineptitude has created.
We can highlight some alarming statistics. Germany has 84 million inhabitants, and a significant quarter have reported that their income falls short of meeting basic needs. In a related study based on official data, it was revealed that 17.5 million Germans live in poverty—5.4 million more than previously estimated. This discrepancy arises because the costs associated with housing were not factored into earlier statistics. Adjusting for this reality, a staggering 20 percent of Germans qualify as “poor.”
It comes as no surprise, then, that an increasing number of Germans rely on soup kitchens, known as “Tafeln,” just to eat. The demand for housing has surged to the point where they have begun rationing food supplies.
Furthermore, more Germans are being forced to abandon their pets because they can no longer afford them; cats and dogs are becoming luxuries that trap people in poverty. Meanwhile, business sentiment in Germany is described as “slumping,” according to Bloomberg.
The situation is grave: Germans may historically have a tendency toward “Angst,” but they are genuinely in trouble. How did this fate befall the industrial powerhouse and leading exporter? The crux of the issue is the economy. It doesn’t take much alarmism—just ask Bloomberg—to note that its very future is at risk: it is “ravaged” by an energy crisis, facing fierce competition from China, suffering losses in Chinese markets, and also contending with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s threats of heavy tariffs. All this occurs amid a persistent stagnation that has lasted five years.
For the past two years, the German economy has essentially “flatlined,” and businesses anticipate yet another year without growth. A lengthy report just concluded that Germany is “reaching a point of no return” on a “path of decline that threatens to become irreversible.”
Here’s the crux: The mainstream parties vying in the snap elections acknowledge the dire situation. How could they not, without inviting ridicule? They all proffer solutions, as expected, but let’s set aside the fact that their proposals appear somewhat laughable coming from parties that comprised the last governing coalition. Why didn’t they enact their ideas while in power?
Everything is quite predictable: The Social Democrats advocate for public spending and infrastructure and make baseless promises to shield ordinary Germans from social decline, despite the fact that this decline is already in progress.
The mainstream conservatives champion lower taxes, budget cuts, and reduced bureaucracy, espousing the miraculous powers of the market to spur new growth. The Free Democrats offer similar ideas but with greater extremity. The Greens promise everything and then some, while simultaneously lacking coherence. Business as usual, in other words.
Yet none of these parties dares to identify the one crucial issue that a new government could quickly resolve, which would have a decisive impact on the German economy: the root cause of the energy crisis that has hit critical “energy-intensive” sectors the hardest—a crisis affecting every business and household. This odd oversight is purely political because the cause is easily identifiable: it’s the “structural blow” resulting from “the loss of cheap Russian energy,” as even Bloomberg highlights.
True, Germany faces a multitude of challenges, some long predating the conflict in and over Ukraine: demographic shifts, under-digitalization, the infamous “debt brake,” and a public debt limit so poorly designed that it precludes reasonable deficits. However, the politically manufactured and self-imposed energy crisis is decisive.
Envision Germany, if you will, as a somewhat out-of-shape middle-class individual. In principle, there’s no reason such a person cannot rehabilitate through a healthy diet and exercise. However, you also strangle them by severing their oxygen supply.
The added irony is that Germany—thanks significantly to its “big brother” ally, America, and its dependent partner, Ukraine—is effectively strangling itself. Auto-asphyxiation is a well-known and potentially fatal behavior, typically associated with lonely rock stars in desolate hotel rooms; witnessing a whole country engage in such a process is peculiar.
Within the current German political landscape, only two parties exhibit a willingness to tackle this crucial issue instead of evading it: the far-right AfD under Alice Weidel and the left-conservative BSW under Sarah Wagenknecht. What do they share beyond that? Nothing—except that both parties are unlikely to influence government policy anytime soon, especially after the February elections. Presently, the AfD is the second-strongest political party following the CDU-CSU conservatives, according to current polls. Whatever one thinks about Musk’s political preferences, it’s a fact that he has allied with a party that nearly a fifth of German voters support.
However, the mainstream parties adamantly insist that they will not permit the AfD to enter a governing coalition. The BSW is performing reasonably well for a newcomer but may struggle to surpass the five-percent threshold necessary to gain seats in the new parliament and is far from accumulating enough votes to become essential for coalition building.
Here lies the final irony: Germany’s core issue is not strictly economic. The economy is indeed in catastrophic condition, but the underlying reason stems from political, intellectual, and moral failures: an inability or unwillingness to abandon a damaging groupthink that subordinates essential German interests to Washington’s misguided political agenda and refuses to allow the urgent necessity of repairing and re-establishing a rational relationship with Russia.
James del Carmen for TROIB News
Oops, he’s done it again: Tech mogul, richest man in the world, and newly aligned with American President-elect Donald Trump, Elon Musk has leveraged his extensive social media influence—as the owner of X and with a personal account boasting over 200 million followers—to comment on political matters. And we’re not referring to his recent, unhelpful involvement in how Americans barely manage to keep their precarious government from grinding to a halt due to financial woes.
Nope, this is about Germany. In relation to Europe’s Sick Man on the Spree, Musk burst onto the scene with his first post in support of the right-wing AfD party in advance of the snap elections on February 23. Musk boldly proclaimed that only the AfD can “save Germany.” A few days later, following a violent attack on a German Christmas market in Magdeburg, Musk labeled Germany’s lame-duck Chancellor Olaf Scholz “an incompetent fool” who ought to resign immediately.
Some Germans are appalled. How dare Musk, an American, weigh in on their elections? Deeply unpopular German Health Minister Karl Lauterbach even resorted to an almost theatrically Victorian show of righteous indignation, calling Musk’s remarks “undignified and highly problematic.” Shocking, indeed!
Interestingly, many of the same Germans have no qualms about Joe Biden, another American, having contributed to the destruction of Ukraine's vital energy infrastructure and vigorously promoting the de-industrialization of Germany and the EU by subsidizing companies relocating to the U.S. Others consider it entirely normal for German politicians, like Michael Roth—the head of the German parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee—to intervene significantly in the politics of places like Georgia, both by interfering in elections and attempting to instigate a coup. Judge not, lest ye be judged...
So, let’s dispense with the melodrama: I am German, and I find it quite objectionable that Musk hasn’t addressed the genocide in Gaza, instead siding with the Israeli perpetrators. However, I have little concern regarding his opinions about which party is best for Germany, even if I do not agree with him. On the matter of calling Scholz what he is, I’m even on Musk's side.
Once we set aside the theatrics, what truly matters here? Why would Musk’s commentary on German politics provoke such a strong reaction from some Germans?
It’s simple: Musk has touched a very raw nerve. That nerve is none other than Germany itself. Yes, everything connected to its faltering economy and, frankly, its delusional politics. Here’s the situation:
On December 16, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz lost a confidence vote in the German parliament. That came as no surprise; it was part of a plan that started back on November 6, when the previous coalition of Greens, Free Democrats, and Scholz’s own Social Democrats crumbled ignominiously. Following that, the no-confidence vote—a predictable yet somewhat phony display of drama—was merely a formality leading to snap elections scheduled for February 23.
At a glance, this could seem like a typical political hiccup: sometimes coalitions falter, and a country needs new elections to—hopefully—reset with a new government. In postwar Germany, this process—based on article 68 of the constitution—is not unprecedented; it has happened five times before.
However, this is not just a routine case. Instead, the snap elections merely represent one small symptom of a far deeper and all-encompassing malaise: Regular news coverage of Germany suggests that Europe’s once-mighty economic engine and political frontrunner is now a distressed nation, facing severe economic decline and, to put it charitably, considerable political disarray. And that assessment is correct. Yet the situation is even grimmer, and I note this as a German.
What’s truly concerning—indeed, almost hopeless—about Germany's current predicament is that no one in a position of political power in Berlin appears willing to confront the root causes of the nation’s troubles. Germany is not simply floundering; it also harbors a non-elite political class entrenched in denial about how to remedy this crisis. Before elaborating further on this glaring issue that most German politicians seem to ignore, let’s examine the wasteland their ineptitude has created.
We can highlight some alarming statistics. Germany has 84 million inhabitants, and a significant quarter have reported that their income falls short of meeting basic needs. In a related study based on official data, it was revealed that 17.5 million Germans live in poverty—5.4 million more than previously estimated. This discrepancy arises because the costs associated with housing were not factored into earlier statistics. Adjusting for this reality, a staggering 20 percent of Germans qualify as “poor.”
It comes as no surprise, then, that an increasing number of Germans rely on soup kitchens, known as “Tafeln,” just to eat. The demand for housing has surged to the point where they have begun rationing food supplies.
Furthermore, more Germans are being forced to abandon their pets because they can no longer afford them; cats and dogs are becoming luxuries that trap people in poverty. Meanwhile, business sentiment in Germany is described as “slumping,” according to Bloomberg.
The situation is grave: Germans may historically have a tendency toward “Angst,” but they are genuinely in trouble. How did this fate befall the industrial powerhouse and leading exporter? The crux of the issue is the economy. It doesn’t take much alarmism—just ask Bloomberg—to note that its very future is at risk: it is “ravaged” by an energy crisis, facing fierce competition from China, suffering losses in Chinese markets, and also contending with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s threats of heavy tariffs. All this occurs amid a persistent stagnation that has lasted five years.
For the past two years, the German economy has essentially “flatlined,” and businesses anticipate yet another year without growth. A lengthy report just concluded that Germany is “reaching a point of no return” on a “path of decline that threatens to become irreversible.”
Here’s the crux: The mainstream parties vying in the snap elections acknowledge the dire situation. How could they not, without inviting ridicule? They all proffer solutions, as expected, but let’s set aside the fact that their proposals appear somewhat laughable coming from parties that comprised the last governing coalition. Why didn’t they enact their ideas while in power?
Everything is quite predictable: The Social Democrats advocate for public spending and infrastructure and make baseless promises to shield ordinary Germans from social decline, despite the fact that this decline is already in progress.
The mainstream conservatives champion lower taxes, budget cuts, and reduced bureaucracy, espousing the miraculous powers of the market to spur new growth. The Free Democrats offer similar ideas but with greater extremity. The Greens promise everything and then some, while simultaneously lacking coherence. Business as usual, in other words.
Yet none of these parties dares to identify the one crucial issue that a new government could quickly resolve, which would have a decisive impact on the German economy: the root cause of the energy crisis that has hit critical “energy-intensive” sectors the hardest—a crisis affecting every business and household. This odd oversight is purely political because the cause is easily identifiable: it’s the “structural blow” resulting from “the loss of cheap Russian energy,” as even Bloomberg highlights.
True, Germany faces a multitude of challenges, some long predating the conflict in and over Ukraine: demographic shifts, under-digitalization, the infamous “debt brake,” and a public debt limit so poorly designed that it precludes reasonable deficits. However, the politically manufactured and self-imposed energy crisis is decisive.
Envision Germany, if you will, as a somewhat out-of-shape middle-class individual. In principle, there’s no reason such a person cannot rehabilitate through a healthy diet and exercise. However, you also strangle them by severing their oxygen supply.
The added irony is that Germany—thanks significantly to its “big brother” ally, America, and its dependent partner, Ukraine—is effectively strangling itself. Auto-asphyxiation is a well-known and potentially fatal behavior, typically associated with lonely rock stars in desolate hotel rooms; witnessing a whole country engage in such a process is peculiar.
Within the current German political landscape, only two parties exhibit a willingness to tackle this crucial issue instead of evading it: the far-right AfD under Alice Weidel and the left-conservative BSW under Sarah Wagenknecht. What do they share beyond that? Nothing—except that both parties are unlikely to influence government policy anytime soon, especially after the February elections. Presently, the AfD is the second-strongest political party following the CDU-CSU conservatives, according to current polls. Whatever one thinks about Musk’s political preferences, it’s a fact that he has allied with a party that nearly a fifth of German voters support.
However, the mainstream parties adamantly insist that they will not permit the AfD to enter a governing coalition. The BSW is performing reasonably well for a newcomer but may struggle to surpass the five-percent threshold necessary to gain seats in the new parliament and is far from accumulating enough votes to become essential for coalition building.
Here lies the final irony: Germany’s core issue is not strictly economic. The economy is indeed in catastrophic condition, but the underlying reason stems from political, intellectual, and moral failures: an inability or unwillingness to abandon a damaging groupthink that subordinates essential German interests to Washington’s misguided political agenda and refuses to allow the urgent necessity of repairing and re-establishing a rational relationship with Russia.
James del Carmen for TROIB News
