‘Was She Ever Really a Reformer?’

What some of the commentators here and Müller-Vogg call 'reform intended by Merkel' was nothing else than promoting the destruction of major parts of Germanys world-class welfare and health system.
Müller-Vogg an mostly in his columns simply ignores that Germany IS a successful player in the global economy. And for Germany especially it is a fact that Germany is successful BECAUSE of the system and not 'in spite of' it. Although there need to be some REAL reforms in Germany, e.g. in the school system, there is no need for any attack against the welfare state and no need at all for further cuttings. Reforms must always be substantial improvements!

Mrs. Merkel will never be a Margaret Thatcher. Her communist and provincial background, her helpless rhetoric and lack of intellect or charisma clearly demonstrate that she plays in a different class. She has never really arrived in the west, and I just hope that Germany will be spared another four Merkel years.

The chancellor changed her agenda. She obviously did. But did she wrong? Reading the articles carefully there seems to be one undisputed truth. Namely, that the pre-election free-market bound reformer Merkel was right (in every kind of meaning), but the tamed chancellor now is wrong. This is miles away from German reality. First, Merkel wasn??t elected for forcing further capitalist reforms. If she were, the conservatives would have got more votes. In fact, Germans were tired of giving up more and more of their social security and loss of real wages.
Second, the Germans have made very good experiences with a fordistic system, which run by good compromises between the capitalist and the working class. And still do! The german economy has not been so successful over several decades although, but because of a good working system of social welfare.
Third, privatization took place during the 1990ies and lots people are very discontent with the effects. The service got worse without getting much cheaper.
There is no shift to the left in german society. Not at all. It is more that since the wall came down the economic world has moved much to the right ??? and so did the discussion, especially in the media. Lots of Germans are sick of it. They want to get rid of all this ???the free market will solve all our problems???-Stuff. That???s not a leftist position. It is neither a socialist idea. It is just the experience, that a radical free market won??t solve their problems. And, by the way, none of the journalists would write in their German papers the same comments they did for the neewsweek. Maybe they also believe more in their loans, than in their opinions???

This M??ller-Vogg is not presenting Germany but obviously being trapped as an admirer of the american way of life where about sixty million inhabitants are not insured by public health, have to struggle a dayly fight to survive with the effort of three and more jobs to finance 10% of the US and a never ending war for energy resources by the US-government murdering thousands of innocent people and destroying the believe in a

socail

First we must know that M??ller-Vogg is a conservative journalist with a market-radical view on economy to understand where he`s coming from! Germany doesn`t need a "second Thatcher" since it is objectivly not in the same situation as the UK in the eighties. The german economy is still the most successful competitor on the global markets. The price for its competitiveness is a low domestic growth because of falling real wages

First we must know that M??ller-Vogg is a conservative journalist with a market-radical view on economy to understand where he`s coming from! Germany doesn`t need a "second Thatcher" since it is objectivly not in the same situation as the UK in the eighties. The german economy is still the most successful competitor on the global markets. The price for its competitiveness is a low domestic growth because of falling real wages