Chancellery | Investment Summit: The Peak of Evil

The announcement itself read like a "best of bad." CDU/CSU Chancellor Friedrich Merz would meet at the Chancellery for a so-called "investment summit" with representatives from Siemens, Deutsche Bank, Axel Springer , and around 60 other companies, mainly large DAX-listed corporations. The first two companies had initiated the whole thing with their "Made for Germany" initiative. The initiative is about growth, sentiment, and the investment climate—in short, PR for industry and the Chancellor. Hardly any new investments were decided at this summit; instead, those that the companies had already planned as economically viable were announced with great pomp. Out of goodwill, corporate bosses do not, after all, commit to investments. Smaller companies or trade unions were not represented at the summit.

Such PR events could also be wonderfully utilized by workers' representatives. For example, the chairman of the IG Bergbau, Chemie und Energie (Mining, Chemical and Energy Union), Michael Vassiliadis, could call for investments compatible with the ecological transformation and thus create sustainable jobs. Or more co-determination in strategic decisions, which was apparently not the case here. Vassiliadis opposes this, demanding – not for the first time – "more location patriotism," thus pandering to large corporations and the right. Worker representation, none to be seen.