CDU’s new economy ministry is “the wooden spoon” – opinion

The German economy ministry (BMWi) has visibly lost influence under three consecutive coalition governments led by Chancellor Angela Merkel, Heike Goebel writes in a commentary for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. But Merkel's CDU party now claims that retaking the ministry, which is also responsible for Germany’s energy system, from the SPD counts as a victory in the coalition negotiations. The ministry’s former occupants “didn’t live up to their role as the guardian of a market economy within the government”, Goebel argues. Merkel’s close associate Peter Altmaier will now become the CDU’s first economy minister in several decades, “but it’s unclear whether the party still knows what this means."

Find the opinion piece in German here.

Find background in the CLEW articles Germany's coalition negotiators agree treaty, promise coal exit date and Reactions to Germany's coalition agreement, and the factsheet Climate, energy and transport in Germany's coalition agreement.