German Bundestag, October 16, 2025, Plenarprotokoll 21/34, pp. 708-709.
Herr President. Ladies and gentlemen.
What is happening here in Germany is no structural transition, it is an economic mass death, unleashed by this government and its ideological nonsense. Germany, once a nation of industry, export world champion, technology leader, degenerates under your leadership into Europe’s industrial graveyard.
A current example: Neff in Bretten, since 1877 a lighthouse of the German engineer’s art. Here, for decades were produced ovens and exhaust hoods “made in Germany”. And now, in the spring of 2028 is an end. Around 1,000 employees and their families lose their livelihood, their future, their home. The CDU Oberbürgermeister names that a slap in the face of the region. I say: That is a slap in the face of every German worker. Yet exactly these local politicians do not have the courage to finally say to their party superiors that only with the AfD can there be an authentic turn to a Politik for more workplaces in Germany.
For long is the SPD no more a partner for a conservative economic policy. This SPD is no more the party of Helmut Schmidt, but of gender ga-ga, masquerade and climate craziness. Finance Minister Klingbeil professes himself preferably for an Antifa terrorist organization instead of for a free economy. That however does not surprise me personally: Of economy and finance, he has not a clue.
Meanwhile, you can daily read reports of insolvencies, factory closings, and work site re-locations. And the worst of it is: To the press, most of that is no longer news; since these reports meanwhile come daily over the wire.
In 2024, the number of bankrupt firms was as high as it had not been in ten years, and in 2025 is expected a further increase. And what does the Union do? This eternal fellow-traveler party?
Hendrik
Hoppenstedt (CSU/CSU): Na, na, na, na,
na! Watch out!
Just nothing: No resistance, no backbone, no plan! Only the usual recipes: More debt, more bureaucracy, more unemployment, more bankruptcy! And that is no single instance!
Bosch, the name once stood for German quality and technological excellence.
Andreas Lenz
(CDU/CSU): Ever still!
Meanwhile, Bosch pulls the plug because your energy policy destroys everything, what here still breathes. Over 20,000 workplaces in the next years to 2030 will be axed – our Economy Minister is not interested, she is today again not present – and thereby an entire stretch of land in Baden-Württemberg and Rheinland-Pfalz is de-industrialized. That is no longer an adaptation to the market, that is the result of your Politik hostile to economy. That is a clearing away in labor market policy.
Next example: The Lufthansa, once pride of the nation, symbol of German reliability, today a business forced to its knees by you. You’ve plainly not rescued the Lufthansa in crisis,
Andreas
Lenz (CSU/CSU): Oh, yes!
you’ve ruined it. And the consequence: Lay-offs, a strike, chaos – a symbol for all that goes awry in this country, for what you get your hands on. You have, thanks to your Politik, achieved that we again have over 3 million unemployed in Germany. What a performance of your time in office so far!
And do you know what the worst of it is? This catastrophe is no accident, it is intended. You sacrifice our industry, our workplaces on the the altar of your climate religion. While China builds factories, you here destroy entire branches of industry; while America promotes, here reigns a standstill; and while other countries invest, you force German business into insolvency.
You speak of transformation, but what you really manage is destruction. You speak of sustainability, but the only things you sustainably create are unemployment and impoverishment. And while you in Berlin debate over gender questions, quotas and war rhetoric, millions of people out there need to witness their life’s work falls apart. The tradesman, the Mittelstandler, the worker who each day pay the price for your arrogance and your incompetence.
Germany is losing its economic soul, ladies and gentlemen. And if we permit that, then we lose all that generations before us have built. Bosch, Neff, Lufthansa: Those are a warning signal, and if we continue to ignore it, then that is no longer a political failure, that is then the betrayal of the German people. Finally required is a 180 degree turnaround: Away from tutelage and the assistance swamp, towards performance, freedom and an authentic industrial policy – and that will only be with the AfD. We are the party of the Mittelstand, the worker, the German economy. We don’t invest in Brussels, not in Kiev, but here with us, in Germany. We do not distribute the taxpayers’ money in foreign lands, but to those who earned, here with us in this country.
Many thanks.
[trans: tem]
