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Scholz urges Germans to ‘go vote’ against attacks on politicians

Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Thursday urged voters to cast their ballots in defence of democracy, as postal voting for June's EU elections began amid a spat of attacks against politicians in Germany.

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German Chancellor Olaf Scholz delivers a speech during the 'Global Solution Summit' conference at the European School of Management and Technology (ESMT) in Berlin, Germany on May 7th, 2024. Photo by: Markus Schreiber / POOL / AFP

“Attacks on our democracy concern us all,” Scholz said in a video podcast Thursday.

“That’s why we can’t stand idly by when our public officials, campaigners or volunteers are brutally attacked. When campaign posters for the European elections are destroyed.

“The answer that each of us can give is very simple — go vote,” he said.

Two politicians from Scholz’s Social Democrats (SPD) have been assaulted in the past week.

Matthias Ecke, the head of the SPD’s European election list in the Saxony region, was set upon last Friday by a group of youths as he put up election posters in the eastern city of Dresden.

The four teenage attackers are thought to have links to the far-right group known as “Elblandrevolte”, according to German media.

Former Berlin mayor Franziska Giffey was at a library on Tuesday afternoon when a man came up from behind her and hit her on the head and neck with a bag.

The increased frequency of attacks has sparked calls for tougher action against those who target politicians.

In his podcast, Scholz also took aim at Germany’s far-right AfD party.

Without referring to the party by name, the chancellor hit out at those calling “for Germany to leave the European Union”.

“Our united Europe is too precious to be left to those who want to destroy it.”

The AfD, which wants to dismantle the EU in its current form, is among a crop of far-right parties across Europe expected to make gains at the June polls.

According to opinion polls, the anti-immigration party is set to win around 15 percent of the vote in Germany, tied in second place with the Greens after the conservative CDU-CSU alliance.

The AfD has been hit by several recent scandals in Germany, including allegations of suspicious links with Russia and China.

In the podcast, Scholz blasted those who “see (President Vladimir) Putin’s Russia or (President) Xi Jinping’s China as role models for Europe”.

“What self-destructive madness!,” he said.

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POLITICS

‘Dexit’ would cost Germany 690 billion euros and millions of jobs: economists

According to the German Economic Institute (IW), Germany's exit from the EU – the so-called Dexit – would cost millions of jobs and significantly reduce the country's prosperity.

'Dexit' would cost Germany 690 billion euros and millions of jobs: economists

In a study presented by the Cologne-based institute on Sunday, the authors showed that a Dexit would cause real GDP to drop by 5.6 percent after just five years. This means that Germany would lose 690 billion euros in value creation during this time.

In addition, Germany as an export nation is dependent on trade with other countries, especially with other EU countries, warned the authors. Companies and consumers in Germany would therefore feel the consequences “clearly” and around 2.5 million jobs would be lost.

The study is based on the consequences of Britain’s exit from the EU, such as the loss of trade agreements and European workers.

Taken together, the losses in economic output in Germany in the event of a Dexit would be similar to those seen during Covid-19 and the energy cost crisis in the period from 2020 to 2023, the authors warned.

Brexit is therefore “not an undertaking worth imitating,” warned IW managing director Hubertus Bardt. Rather, Brexit is a “warning for other member states not to carelessly abandon economic integration.”

Leader of the far-right AfD party Alice Weidel described Great Britain’s exit from the European Union at the beginning of the year as a “model for Germany.”

In an interview published in the Financial Times, Weidel outlined her party’s approach in the event her party came to power: First, the AfD would try to resolve its “democratic deficit” by reforming the EU. If this was not successful, a referendum would be called on whether Germany should remain in the EU.

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