As the commotion over migration policy dies down, the CDU’s economic wing and employer associations are now calling for a stronger emphasis on economic issues in the election campaign. “Germany has a migration and an economic crisis” said the head of the CDU’s Mittelstandsunion, Gitta Connemann, in an interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung. “It’s a fact: the economy is drowning in water.” Every day, three businesses are filing for insolvency and the unemployment rate is rising to nearly three million. “Every day without reforms is a disaster” Connemann said.
The head of the Federal Association of German Employers’ Associations, Steffen Kampater, expressed a similar view. “Regardless of the necessary and contentious discussion about the migration challenges, the economic challenges remain” he told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung. “Economic policy is the mother of all election campaigns. The stronger our economy grows, the easier it will be to overcome societal challenges.” This is the prerequisite for a strong, united and compromising country.
CDU chancellor candidate Friedrich Merz had initially announced that overcoming the economic stagnation would be the most important election campaign theme after the collapse of the grand coalition in November. However, after the Aschaffenburg attack, he shifted the focus to the implementation of a tougher migration policy, even with the support of the AfD and put it at the forefront. However, his bill failed on Friday.