Halfway through a bruising decade, the relentless focus on what is going wrong in Germany is making things worse for everyone except extremists. Merz himself, too, spoke repeatedly last year about trying to trigger a Stimmungswechsel – a change in the national mood – towards more optimism. Then there’s Merz’ repeated attempts to get rid of sick-notes by telephone and complaints that Germans are off sick too long. (Photo by Kirill KUDRYAVTSEV / AFP)Once again, this has neither a basis in fact, nor is it conducive to a positive national mood. He needs to be quick about it too: we have two of four state (Landtag) elections approaching in March, and our negative national mood is a tonic for extremists, who prey on people’s fears for the future.

Source: The Local February 06, 2026 16:27 UTC