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Articles by Lidia Conde

About the Author

Lidia Conde
She studied journalism at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. Since 1991, Lidia lives and works in Germany as a correspondent for several Spanish newspapers, in which she has covered the fall of the Berlin Wall and the German reunification. Seeking an answer to how Europe could become competitive and fair, too.
germany reinvented

European economy 18th June 2020

Germany Reinvents Itself And Bets On Europe And High Tech

Lidia Conde (Frankfurt) |  German corporations are highlighting the risks of the global distribution of work, their weakness in the face of global value chains. Will work and production return to Europe, to Germany? It’s not clear. The pandemic has led to unprecedented reactions and almost unconditional support for Europe. It’s a way of helping yourself. Germany is expecting the worst recession since World War II, with the economy declining by up to 8% in 2020.

Germany: what will happen with the German middle class

In Europe 7th November 2019

Germany: What will happen to the middle class

Lidia Conde (Frankfurt) | The fourth globalization now punishes the German middle class, which perceives how the revolution accelerates and introduces new elements such as the competence of Indian computer experts operating from home: they do not need to emigrate to work.

forest drone view winter

In Europe 18th October 2019

Germany: shall we save the climate or the economy?

Lidia Conde (Frankfurt) | What do we save, the climate or the economy, at a moment when globalisation is accelerating, impacting above all on the middle class? What is the third way in this stage of history when artificial intelligence and automation is creating ever more social conflict? Germany is debating the future.

"Trump is the best thing that has happened to Europe"

Interviews 24th May 2019

“Trump Is The Best Thing That Has Happened To Europe”

Lidia Conde (Fráncfort) | Daniel Dettling is professor, editor and president of the Future Institute of Berlin Zukunftspolitik, one of the most prestigious European think tanks in Euro trends and futures thinking. Advises parties, ministries and companies. In his last book, “An agenda for the Neorepublic”, he focuses on the configuration of a just future.

dry branch

In Europe 14th May 2019

Goodbye to Germany Ltd

Lidia Conde (Frankfurt) | Germany is its firms. Germany is Deutsche Bank, Bayer, Thyssenkrupp, VW. What German executive Dieter Zetsche said a few weeks ago, that “it is not clear that the brand Mercedes Benz will exist in the future”, symbolises the identity crisis generated by global pressure, digitalisation and the latest technological revolution. Many of the consortia which form part of the German economic identity are between a rock and a hard place. It would be the definitive goodbye to the so-called Germany Ltd.

"The social market economy will be able to function, but it will need to be updated"

Interviews 8th February 2019

“The Social Market Economy Will Be Able To Function, But It Will Need To Be Updated”

Lidia Conde (Fráncfort) | Achim Wambach has been the president of the European economic think tank ZEW in Mannheim since 2016. He is also president of the antimonopoly commission and the Association for Social Policy. He forms part of National Platform on Electromobility and works in the advisory council of the State of Baden-Württemberg for sustainable economic development.

Germany labour market

In Europe 24th January 2019

Germany Expects A Record Year In Employment

Lidia Conde (Frankfurt) | All the labour market data in the country are brilliant. Since 2007 it has gone from 40.3 million people in work to 45.2 million in 2019 (45.5 in 2020). In ten years Germany has gone from 8.6% unemployment to 3.1%. There is even a shortage of skilled labour. And its citizens are happier than ever with their quality of life.

 

Germany fears to lose welfare state to pay refugees

In Europe 10th September 2018

Germany: The Ideological Turn Of Fear

Between July 2015 and July 2018, 1.3 million people have sought asylum in Germany. The three years between the festive welcome to the refugees in Munich railway station and the xenophobic revolt in Chemnitz (Saxony) in September – after the stabbing of a 35 year old German, reportedly by foreigners – have seen an unprecedented renaissance of conservative politics.

Trump's trade strategy could work

Interviews 31st July 2018

“Trump’s Strategy Will Work If The World Lets It And Doesn´t Push Back”

Gabriel Felbemayr, since 2010 Director of the Centre for Foreign Economy at the Ifo Institute in Múnich, explains that “the EU has a clear advantage over the US in the old economy: cars, machinery and chemicals. But the US enjoys an advantage in the so-called new economy, in digital and financial services, leisure. This is the target for the EU.”

Germany first politics damages the Merkel's government coalition

In Europe 30th July 2018

Bavaria Imposes “Germany First”

Trump is contagious. The President of Bavaria,  Markus Söder, and the conservative Interior Minister, Horst Seehofer, both Social Christians, have found the magic recipe of Germany first politics to defend their coalition’s -CSU is the partner of Merkel’s CDU in Berlin- absolute majority in the next state elections in the region in October.