It took just a few hours for Friedrich Merz to conduct one of the sharpest U-turns in recent political history.
At lunchtime last Friday, Germany’s chancellor-to-be received a sobering briefing on the state of the economy from finance minister J?rg Kukies.
Kukies explained that after two years of stagnation and with more clouds gathering over Europe’s largest economy, Berlin faced a €130bn budget shortfall over four years and dwindling growth potential, according to people with knowledge of the presentation.
您已閱讀4%（511字），剩余96%（11309字）包含更多重要信息，訂閱以繼續探索完整內容，并享受更多專屬服務。