The deficit of qualified workers in Germany is getting worse, according to the latest Business Survey conducted by the Munich-based Ifo Institute among nearly 9,000 German corporations.

The results of the poll, released on Wednesday, show that over 43% of respondents reported a deficit of skilled employees in July, up from just over 42% recorded in April. An all-time high of nearly 50% was reached in July 2022.

“Despite a sluggish economy, many companies are still desperately searching for suitable employees,” says Ifo expert Stefan Sauer.

According to the survey, the service sector has been hit particularly hard with more than 75% of legal and accounting firms not finding the applicants they need, while nearly two-thirds of companies in transportation, architecture, and engineering report a shortage of qualified workers, marking a new high for those sectors.

Some updated information and analysis that was not really widely available in the English language.

cross-posted from: https://exploding-heads.com/post/724208

The European Union’s dependency on Russian gas has not been solved; it has only been disguised by a massive increase in dependency on coal (lignite) in the case of Germany and expensive liquefied natural gas imported from the rest of the world. At the end of 2022, Germany’s energy mix was the clearest example of its energy policy failure. Hard coal and lignite accounted for 31.2%, natural gas 13.8%, and mineral oil 0.8%, with nuclear at 6.0%. After almost 200 billion euros in renewable subsidies, Germany needs more coal and imported natural gas. What did the government decide after facing the mistake of shutting down almost all its nuclear fleet? You guessed it. Double down and continue with the process of closing the remaining ones. No wonder Germany is in recession. Its industrial model requires abundant and affordable energy, and the different governments have made the cost of energy uncompetitive.

What about Spain?

Germany is debating whether to ban the far-Right Alternative for Germany (AfD) as the party surges to 21 per cent in the polls, amid warnings from intelligence officials that its members are becoming increasingly extreme.

Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the German president, warned in a speech to the country’s domestic intelligence agency that “we all have it in our hands to put those who despise our democracy in their place”.

His speech at the castle where the German post-war constitution was created has widely been seen as support for a ban after Thomas Haldenwang, the domestic spy chief, warned about growing Right-wing extremist influence in the party.

In Germany, the Human Rights Institute (DIMR) evaluated the conditions for banning the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) Party, which is anti-Islam and anti-immigrant. In the statement made by DIMR, it was stated that the preparation of the report titled "Why can the AfD be banned? Advice to the government and politics" aims to fill a gap in the social and legal debates regarding the AfD and contribute to raising awareness about the danger posed by the party in politics, the state and society.

The German Institute for Human Rights (DIMR) has concluded that the conditions necessary for a ban on the AfD have been met. In its latest analysis, the institute, which is legally mandated to prevent human rights violations, underlined that the party is actively and systematically pursuing its "racist and right-wing extremist goals".

One of the AfD's tactics, according to the analysis, is to manipulate public discourse and shift the boundaries of acceptable speech to normalize their raci

cross-posted from: https://exploding-heads.com/post/526669

Germany is facing several tough years due to a combination of transitioning to sustainable energy sources and the rising costs of energy, warned Germany’s Green Economic Affairs Minister Robert Habeck.

The number of German recipients of welfare benefits has halved since 2010, while the number of foreign nationals receiving social assistance payments has doubled, government data has revealed.

The data emerged from a response by Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs Anette Kramme to a request made by the Alternative for Germany (AfD) MP René Springer.

It revealed that the number of German recipients of the citizens’ allowance had almost halved from 5.2 million in 2020 to 2.9 million as of February 2023. In contrast, foreign recipients of social benefits had doubled from 1.3 million people in 2010 to 2.6 million currently.

With spikes in the number of recipients experienced during the 2015 migrant crisis and the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, it means the German taxpayer is paying around €15.4 billion each year in social benefits for foreign recipients, a 122 percent increase over the €6.9 billion reported in 2010.

The two teachers say students greeted each other with Nazi salutes, threatened to beat up immigrant classmates and were homophobic and sexist.

Two teachers in eastern Germany tried to counter the far-right activities of students at their high school. They counselled bullies who threatened to beat up immigrant classmates. They gave more lessons about their country's Nazi past. They invited in a Black rapper to talk about mutual respect.

None of it helped. In desperation, Laura Nickel and Max Teske wrote a public letter describing an atmosphere of intimidation at Mina Witkojc School in Burg. They reported students greeting each other with the Nazi salute, scratching swastikas on their desks and playing music with racist lyrics in the hallways.

“Teachers and students who openly fight against far-right students and teachers fear for their safety,” the two said in the letter they sent to local newspapers, adding schools "cannot provide a home for the enemies of democracy."

Nickel, who

Since the start of the summer bathing season, violence and sexual assaults at Germany’s public swimming pools by the country’s migrant community have made national headlines and become a red-hot topic. Now, one of Germany’s top newspapers has attempted to explain away the violence due to rising french fry prices.

“The price of fries is rising in outdoor pools. It’s a tragedy — they’re one of the mainstays of summer. No wonder many bathers go nuts,” reads the article from Zeit. The article proceeds to glorify french fries as a staple of every German’s swimming experience and makes further claims about what kind of effect rising prices are having on “unrest” in the pool system.

Many in Germany were quick to pounce on the article. After all, there have been serious incidents inside Germany’s swimming pools, including seven girls who were sexually assaulted in the course of two days at just one location. To critics of the french fry theory behind pool violence, using such a claim to expl

cross-posted from: https://exploding-heads.com/post/199878

"It is you [WHO] that is the small fringe minority," she continued. "You are the ones who do not have the right to dictate to the people what they want and what they don’t want."

"So take it from me ... take it from the millions and millions of people around the world. We will bring you down, and we will not tire until we have done just that. So brace yourselves. We are here, and the fight is on. So let’s have the fight."

The president of Thuringia’s regional Office for the Protection of the Constitution, which is the country’s main domestic intelligence agency, said he considers one in five Germans to be right-wing extremists, specifically using the phrase “brown dregs.”

“We’re at about 20 percent brown filth in the Federal Republic,” Kramer told broadcaster NDR Info after Alternative for Germany’s landmark election victory in the district of Sonneberg, which came after the AfD hit a polling high of 20 percent nationwide, or one in five Germans. The “brown” reference is clearly an allusion to the Nazi brownshirts, with many on the left and within the establishment media routinely attempting to frame the AfD party as National Socialists.

Kramer, who is himself a member of the left-wing Social Democrats (SPD), said that he still has “hope” of reaching AfD voters.

cross-posted from: https://exploding-heads.com/post/158971

The two ministers said that both countries consider it important to abolish unanimous voting in the European Council in areas such as foreign policy and taxation before the enlargement of the European Union. This could mean, for example, that Brussels would be able to implement a flat tax rate across the EU or even involve itself more deeply in the war, both moves that Hungary has rejected and in some cases even deployed its veto to stop.

Paris and Berlin claim abolishing the veto is a change that is possible without amending the EU treaties, a point hotly contested by a number of European parties, as it would not only give Brussels enormous power but also the largest states, such as Germany and France. This would subsequently allow for the EU to enact a liberal immigration policy, green rules and various other progressive goals without any hindrance from Hungary and other smaller, conservative nations.

The Bundesbank announced in March that it had suffered a €1bn hit from its bond holdings, as it grappled with the impact of higher interest rates. It also warned that future losses would wipe out its remaining financial buffers, though it denied it would need a government rescue.