4 hours ago, aram said:

moji su papiri rešeni od starta, EU državljanin

Ocde fali onaj mim sa Vucelicem koji pusi tompus na obali mora

Šta bi moglo da prođe po zlu.

Germany halves 2026 growth forecast on Iran war fallout

https://www.rte.ie/news/business/2026/0422/1569570-german-halves-economic-outlook/

The German government has today halved its growth forecast for this year as the energy shock triggered by the Middle East war hammers Europe's biggest economy.

The economy ministry said it expected gross domestic product (GDP) to expand 0.5% in 2026, down from a projection of 1% made in January.

It also cut its forecast for 2027 to 0.9%, down from 1.3%.

Hopes had been high that the euro zone's traditional growth engine would sputter back to life in 2026 after years of stagnation, driven by Chancellor Friedrich Merz's public spending blitz.

But the jump in oil and gas prices since the start of the US-Israeli war on Iran has dealt the economy a heavy blow, pushing up overall inflation and raising costs for the country's crucial manufacturers.

Presenting the new forecasts, Economy Minister Katherina Reiche said that before the conflict, there had been signs of of a moderate recovery.

"But the escalation in the Middle East has set us back economically," she told a press conference. "The shock has hit the structurally weakened German economy hard once again."

Higher energy costs, as well as the higher cost of borrowing on international markets since the outbreak of the conflict in February, were weighing heavily, she said.

The downgraded forecasts follow a similar move by leading economic institutes in early April, which are now forecasting just 0.6% growth this year.

Before the Iran war, the economy was just getting back on its feet after the energy shock triggered by the Ukraine war and last year's US tariff blitz.

The renewed surge in energy prices is a particular burden for Germany's heavy industry, in sectors ranging from steel to chemicals, which was also struggling with weak demand in export markets and fierce Chinese competition.

Knock-on effects, like supply chain snarls that are delaying delivery of vital base products, are weighing on industry, while consumers are facing higher costs, especially at the petrol pump.

Inflation jumped to 2.7% in March, its highest level in over two years.

German investor morale plunges

Surveys highlight the darkening picture.

A poll this week showed that German investor morale hit its lowest level in April since late 2022, when the country was battling the fallout from Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The government is scrambling to respond. As well as the relief on fuel prices, Merz has announced that businesses can pay workers a tax-free bonus of up to €1,000.

Still, many economists and business groups have criticised the measures as ill conceived, saying they are not properly targeted at needy groups.

They are calling on the German government to instead focus on pushing through deep reforms to areas like healthcare, pensions and bureaucracy that they argue can help spur growth in the long term.

"You cannot cushion a shock like this with tax money or bonus payments," Peter Leibinger, president of the Federation of German Industries (BDI), said this week.

"The state cannot insure citizens and companies against every external crisis," he said. "The only insurance is growth-oriented policies that enable investment."

Businesses have meanwhile become increasingly frustrated with Merz's coalition.

The chancellor, who took power in May last year, promised to revive the economy through huge public outlays on defence and infrastructure and a barrage of reforms.

But the spending has moved slowly and structural overhauls have made little headway, bogged down by lengthy talks between his centre-right CDU party and its coalition partners, the centre-left SPD.

The coalition is promising to push through an ambitious programme before parliament's summer recess, though critics doubt what can realistically be achieved so quickly.

Amerikanci stavljaju nadgledaca u nemacku vojsku,

The U.S. military is placing a colonel in the German army’s Operations Division in an unusually close collaboration.

https://www.politico.eu/article/germany-military-ties-us-friedrich-merz-donald-trump-rift/

BERLIN — Germany is embedding a senior U.S. officer deep into its military command structures in a sign of close cooperation that comes despite worsening political ties.

Starting in October, an American colonel will serve at the German Army Command in a key role as deputy head of the Operations Division, where missions are planned and decisions are prepared, the German army and the Pentagon told POLITICO.

Neko sa ratnim iskustvom? Ameri imaju gomilu takvih, a Nemačkoj će možda trebati

1 hour ago, Engineer said:

Neko sa ratnim iskustvom? Ameri imaju gomilu takvih, a Nemačkoj će možda trebati

Imali su Nemci ceo sektor na severu Afganistana. Proveli su tamo oko 20 godina i oko 150.000 vojnika je bilo na terenu.

Nije da nemaju iskustva u ratovanju. Dobro, ne bas kao SAD, ali nisu ni svajcarci.

20 hours ago, x500 said:

Imali su Nemci ceo sektor na severu Afganistana. Proveli su tamo oko 20 godina i oko 150.000 vojnika je bilo na terenu.

Nije da nemaju iskustva u ratovanju. Dobro, ne bas kao SAD, ali nisu ni svajcarci.

Kojih bre 150.000 vojnika? Nikada ih nije bilo više od 6.000, 59 njih je poginulo, braneći našu slobodu, kako su tada političari pričali "Unsere Freiheit wird am Hindukusch verteidigt".... I malo njih je baš imalo borbena dejstva...

7 minutes ago, assignment said:

Kojih bre 150.000 vojnika? Nikada ih nije bilo više od 6.000, 59 njih je poginulo, braneći našu slobodu, kako su tada političari pričali "Unsere Freiheit wird am Hindukusch verteidigt".... I malo njih je baš imalo borbena dejstva...

6000 vojnika x 20 godine = 120.000

Ok?

1 hour ago, x500 said:

6000 vojnika x 20 godine = 120.000

Ok?

Može, ako niko nije bio duže od godinu dana 😂

Nova.rs

Drama u Lajpcigu: Automobilom uleteo u masu, dve osobe po...

Dve osobe su poginule, a više njih je povređeno nakon što je danas popodne u Lajpcigu vozač automobilom uleteo u masu ljudi, saopštile su lokalne vlasti. Gradon

Germany’s Merz struggles to contain ‘chancellor swap’ talk

Younger, more popular conservative Hendrik Wüst emerges as dark horse for the chancellery as polls slide

https://www.ft.com/content/571d3705-5146-474a-a0f5-826c77c541a4

Just over a year after taking office, Friedrich Merz faces what few German chancellors have encountered so early in their term: persistent talk of a younger and more popular party colleague replacing him.

Hendrik Wüst, the 50-year-old prime minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, shares many of Merz’s attributes: he is also tall, tie-wearing and steeped in the conservative heartlands of western Germany. But he has something the chancellor lacks: public appeal.

Wüst has not said he wants Merz’s job. But a statesmanlike visit to Poland accompanied by Berlin-based journalists last week, including a carefully choreographed stop at Auschwitz, was enough to prompt a flurry of commentary about a change at the top.

“Suddenly Hendrik Wüst is touted as the replacement chancellor,” the centre-left Stern magazine declared on Monday.

“Wüst against Merz: it seems inevitable,” followed a commentary in the conservative Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. “Is a chancellor swap looming?” asked rightwing tabloid Bild on its front page on Wednesday.

“The question is: is Friedrich Merz still the right one?” an anchor of the country’s most viewed news show, the Tagesschau, wondered on Thursday.

The debate has grown prominent enough for senior figures in Merz’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) to intervene. People close to the chancellor have dismissed the discussion as “absurd” and “dangerous”. One government insider accused titles owned by media group Axel Springer, which include Bild, of waging a “campaign”.

“It’s a very improbable scenario,” another insider said. “But [Merz] is under pressure from his own ranks.”

The debate reflects growing anxiety within Merz’s CDU over shrinking support ahead of difficult regional elections in eastern Germany in September.

Support for the CDU has slipped to around 23 per cent, while the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) has risen to 28 per cent despite Merz’s pledge to curb its advance. High energy prices driven by the war in Iran and deadlocked talks with his Social Democrat (SPD) coalition partners over welfare reforms have deepened voter discontent, pollsters say.

Never a popular figure, Merz appears to be suffering most. With fewer than a fifth of Germans satisfied with his performance, he is now less popular than his SPD predecessor, Olaf Scholz, at a much later point in his term. Merz, 70, ranked last in a Bild popularity ranking published this week. Wüst, meanwhile, ranked third — the highest of any CDU politician.

For Jana Puglierin, head of the European Council on Foreign Relations’ Berlin office, the episode underscores that Germany is no more immune to political volatility than France or the UK.

Merz has projected strength abroad, after loosening debt restrictions to inject €1tn into Germany’s derelict infrastructure and military, and emerging as the biggest donor of military aid to Ukraine. He criticised the US-Israeli war on Iran as ill-prepared and humiliating, triggering a massive row with Donald Trump.

But at home, he lacks a strong power base. It took him three attempts to become party chair and two attempts to be elected chancellor in the Bundestag.

“Europe thought that Germany was more stable than France and the UK, with its fiscal space and its coalition,” Puglierin said. “But as it turns out, Germany’s domestic politics are more shaken than people think.”

Panic is creeping through the CDU, once a big-tent party able to attract a wide array of voters but now feeling directionless, she added.

After Angela Merkel’s centrist rule, Merz promised to take the party back to its conservative roots and lure voters away from the AfD. This has involved tightening immigration rules and relaxing green regulation. The CDU won last year’s elections with 28 per cent, less than he had hoped for, while the AfD won a record 21 per cent, becoming the second largest party in parliament.

As the CDU’s poll ratings have fallen, attention has turned to “alternative models” such as Wüst, whose successful coalition with the Greens in North Rhine-Westphalia offers a different template, Puglierin said.

Andreas Rödder, a historian and former senior CDU official, says that while there are “no current plans to overthrow Merz”, the concerns stem from a “great deal of dissatisfaction with him, which could turn into panic”.

CDU insiders, commentators and political analysts agree that replacing Merz midterm is highly unlikely.

The constitution allows for a change of chancellor without fresh elections through a so-called constructive vote of no confidence, under which a parliamentary majority agrees on a successor. Unlike in the UK, a German chancellor need not be an MP.

In 1966, CDU Chancellor Ludwig Erhard resigned after his liberal coalition partner left his government. His successor, Kurt Kiesinger, avoided new elections by forming a new coalition with the SPD. In 1982, SPD Chancellor Helmut Schmidt was replaced by CDU leader Helmut Kohl after the liberal partner switched sides.

A similar scenario would probably require Merz to step aside, Wüst to enter the race and the SPD to back him as chancellor.

“Wherever you look, this scenario makes no sense. It’s only possible if Merz wants it. All other scenarios are out of the question,” Roland Koch, the former CDU premier of Hesse and a Merz ally, told the FT.

These “theoretical discussions” arise because “the situation is so critical for the coalition, which has done some things right but is in trouble because of the economic situation”, he said.

The SPD is to blame, Koch said, for failing to embrace bold reforms. “I am astonished at how little the two coalition parties can agree on economically.”

Regional elections in the former eastern communist state of Saxony-Anhalt, where polls suggest the AfD is within reach of winning an absolute majority, are looming large over the debate.

“There are no popular reforms, but best to see them through before these elections rather than having to admit that nothing can be done,” Koch said.

Merz this week addressed the debate indirectly, telling voters in his constituency that he was “personally determined” to revive Europe’s largest economy, and promising a big package of measures before the summer. Earlier that day, Wüst told reporters Merz had “his full support”.

A government spokesman on Friday said the chancellor was “focused on the reform process”, adding: “All other matters are irrelevant.”

If the AfD becomes the first far-right party to win a state election in postwar Germany, pressure on Merz would intensify sharply, said Andrea Römmele, a political scientist at Berlin’s Hertie School.

Still, replacing him would require the support of the very man at the centre of the speculation.

“It says more something about the CDU — how insecure they are,” Römmele said.

dw.com

„Tužni rekord“ – Nemci sve siromašniji

Broj ljudi u Nemačkoj koji živi u siromaštvu veći je nego ikad od 2020. godine. Posebno su pogođeni samohrani roditelji, ljudi koje žive same i starije osobe. Regionalne razlike su velike.

Nemacka izgubila mesto u SB UN, ostala u glasovima iza Austrije i Portugala, i to dok presedava GS UN Analena Berbok optuzuju Ruse za to, mada ne mislim da je samo to razlog.

Germany’s Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul on why Germany lost UN seat: There's our rock-solid support for Ukraine. It is no secret that Russia does not want such a voice at the table — and campaigned against us. It also may have cost us votes that Germany must always assume a special responsibility for Israel with regard to the Middle East conflict. We will continue to live up to our historical responsibility — even as we criticize specific policies of the current government.

https://x.com/dw_politics/status/2062207087606710618