STUTTGART (dpa-AFX) - Mercedes-Benz CEO Ola Källenius has issued a warning about Germany's economic decline and the dangers of a political shift to the right. "For about the past 10 to 15 years, Germany has been moving in the wrong economic direction," Källenius told "Spiegel." If this trend is not reversed, "then the right-wing populists will come, and they have no solutions for anything."
Källenius attributes part of the country's problems to a lack of willingness to perform. He compared it to saying before a football World Cup, "we're training enough," while everyone else is training twice as much. Everyone knows, he said, that you won't become world champions that way.
Germany has some of the highest labor costs in the world. For years, this was offset by increased productivity, but that is no longer sufficient. "We do not want Asian conditions in Germany, but when it comes to energy, taxes, and labor costs, we must move in a direction that makes entrepreneurship and investment worthwhile in Germany again," the Mercedes CEO said. Otherwise, capital will flow elsewhere.
Mercedes CEO: Germans Must Work More Overall
Källenius defended the right to part-time work, but with limitations. "Part-time work for valid reasons, such as child-rearing or caregiving, is a wonderful tool; many people have been retained by their employers or brought back into the labor market this way." However, it is also clear that Germans as a whole must work more again, otherwise "our unique productivity engine will stall even further."
With regard to European industrial policy, Källenius also called for a change of course: "We must move away from obligations and penalties and towards market-based incentives and massive investment in infrastructure. Whether it's chemicals, steel, or cars – we are making the same methodological mistakes everywhere." In this way, Europe is losing its economic strength./sl/DP/mis
