Germany’s Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, is reeling from a disappointing set of election results in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia on Sunday in which voting for his Social Democrat Party fell below 30 per cent.
This was the first time since the end of the First World War that the SDP has done so badly, losing nearly 5 per cent to come in with a 26.7 per cent share of the vote for the state which it ran continuously from 1966 to 2005.
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While the challenges facing the world’s fourth-largest economy are real, many have rather lost sight of Germany’s strengths.
Bureaucracy and too much red tape have led to an exodus of major manufacturers.
The German economy may be struggling because of the dip in world trade but it won’t be long before it’s back centre stage.
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