FRANKFURT | By Lidia Conde | What happens when the supervisory board in a company discovers that its president conceals his intentions of improving the relationship with the political power by hiring Angela Merkel’s “man of confidence”? That’s what has happened in Deutsche Bahn, the German railway, whose supervisory board learned from the press that Ronald Pofalla (Merkel’s cabinet chief barely two weeks before) was joining the governing board.
BERLIN | By Alberto Lozano | While the euro zone jobless rate reached 12.1 percent in October, Germany has promising news for itself: national labor market is expected to create about 180,000 jobs in 2014. Why is this happening?
MADRID | By Luis Martí | In Germany, coalitions are frequent at all levels of government, with a degree of formalization and publicity which was minimum before (in the Adenauer Era), but which has shown an extensive “coalition contract” since 1969. The current contract, initialled on 27 November, has yet to be ratified –and it’s expected that the process will be brief where the CDU and the CSU are concerned, but not so much in the case of the SPD, which must be subject to a vote of approval by its affiliates.
By Peter Lundgreen at Caixin | Corporations and consumers are optimistic about the prospects for growth in Germany next year, but this hope lacks supporting fundamentals.
BERLIN | By Presseurop| The contract for a new grand coalition government between Angela Merkel’s Christian democrats and the Social Democratic Party, which was presented on November 27, has not met with much enthusiasm in the German press. For some, the long-awaited deal is too generous to the left, while others argue that it fails to take into account the interests of Europe.
MADRID | By Fernando G. Urbaneja | The present crisis is punishing the Europeans more than anyone else, although Germany is quite well. However, the scarce economic growth, high unemployment rates, and questionable living conditions of the society lead to think that the EU has resigned to mediocrity.
BERLIN | By Alberto Lozano | Housing prices in Germany have skyrocketed since 2010 -in big cities prices up to 25%, according to the Bundesbank, which points out overvaluation could reach 20%, giving “ise to fears of a broad-based property price boom.” Germans are already pointing to the ECB as the main culprit.
MADRID | By JP Marin Arrese | One day after the European Commission put Germany under close scrutiny, blaming its fat trade surplus of curtailing other countries’ growth, figures released on economic performance in the third quarter came as a nasty surprise. Exports had stalled in the biggest partner, bringing growth rate to 0.3% down from 0.7% three months before. Resilience in internal demand had saved it from shrinking, openly contradicting Brussels’ claims against Berlin.
LISBON | By António Costa at Diário Económico via Presseurop | The European Commission has opened a “thorough investigation” into Germany’s export surpluses, which stand accused of damaging the Eurozone’s balance. However, working towards banking union would be wiser, writes Diario Economico’s director.
MADRID | By JP Marin Arrese | Draghi is becoming a popular target for the German press. He presented himself as a tough defender of the established order in monetary policy when canvassing for the top job in the European central bank. But as soon as he secured his coveted goal, he shifted away from orthodoxy.