Manuel Hagel, the CDU’s leading candidate for Baden-Württemberg, has argued that workers should put in longer hours and retire later. He told the “Handelsblatt” that Germans work roughly 200 fewer hours than their Swiss neighbours and urged the creation of incentives for extra work, such as overtime that would be exempt from taxes and social‑security contributions. At the same time he warned that a pension reform is necessary, adding that, due to rising life expectancy, people will eventually have to work until 70 or beyond.
Hagel has taken aim at the SPD, his coalition partner at the federal level, accusing them of harming the economy. He described the SPD’s plan to raise inheritance tax as “poison for the location”, arguing that such a measure could only work if the tax were regionalized. By letting states set their own rates, he says, the policy could be tuned to protect small and medium‑sized enterprises and would stimulate fiscal competition between the German Länder.
He sees the ongoing economic downturn as a direct threat to the heart of German industry, warning of a slow deindustrialisation that could make Germany the “Detroit of Europe”, a reference to the historic decline of the U.S. auto‑industry hub. To shield domestic manufacturing from the “price war” posed by Chinese competitors, he says political measures – including the possibility of new European tariffs – are required.