German election candidates clash over economy in four-way TV debate

The leading candidates to become Germany’s next chancellor clashed over the country’s struggling economy in a heated four-way TV debate on Sunday.

Conservative leader Friedrich Merz, whose centre-right CDU/CSU alliance is leading in the polls, criticized the shutdown of the country’s nuclear power plants and a supply chain law passed by Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s administration.

“We have to get out of this recession,” said Merz, calling for the “bureaucratic monster” to be brought under control and for corporate taxes to be lowered.

Economy Minister Robert Habeck from the Greens said the country’s strict constitutional rules on government borrowing need to be relaxed. He accused Merz of “voodoo economics.”

Scholz meanwhile reiterated his Social Democratic Party’s proposal to reduce the burden on 95% of taxpayers, while those earning over €300,000 ($315,000).

Alice Weidel from the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) called for energy prices to be lowered by focusing on nuclear power plants, coal and gas.

Scholz accused her of talking “hot air.”