Many thanks to Hellequin GB for translating this article from Epoch Times:

“Reorganization case” Germany: Wolfgang Reitzle dreams of an “ideology-free new beginning”

Does Germany still have a chance to rise from the rubble of the pandemic like a phoenix from the ashes? Economic manager Wolfgang Reitzle says: “The potential in Germany is huge.” But there are many obstacles, after sixteen years of Angela Merkel. In an interview with Welt am Sonntag, Wolfgang Reitzle, long-time chairman of the supervisory board of the automotive supplier Continental and former CEO of Linde AG, spoke of his dream of the way Germany could be and develop in the future — and of the sad reality in which we currently live.

A new beginning — without ideology, “Let me just dream” — of a bipartisan consensus for an “ideology-free new beginning”. One thing is extremely important to him personally, according to the business manager: “We need a new, ideology-free energy and mobility policy.” The bureaucracy would have to be cut and the administration systematically digitized.

We need to trust in market forces again; we would have to reduce the state quota to under fifty percent and create a binding “ten-year plan for investments in sustainable infrastructure” — and the insight that should guide all of our actions should be “that prosperity also involves effort, and means performance.”

If you want to get the economy going again quickly after the pandemic, you will also have to give companies tax relief.

“The potential in Germany is huge,” says Wolfgang Reitzle. But a bitter reality stands in the way of his dream.

Appearance and reality

In Germany there is a discrepancy between appearance and reality: a defense budget of 47 billion euros, rifles that don’t fire, tanks that don’t run, and airplanes that don’t fly.

The problem can be seen particularly clearly in the federal capital. Reitzle calls it a dysfunctional city, a “failed state” — one of the worst-governed capitals of Europe.

When it comes to crime, they look the other way, allow squatting and the spread of Arab clan criminality. Berlin is not even able to “build an airport for our capital”. Michael Müller, the mayor, is responsible for the failure. He has been in the media for months, explaining to everyone how Corona management works, says the economist.

Germany’s Merkel years

In any case, the Corona crisis revealed one thing, explains Wolfgang Reitzle: Germany has not lived up to its claim to belong to the “World Class” for a long time.

“After almost sixteen years of Merkel, Germany is in need of restructuring in many areas: bureaucracy got stuck in the fax age, digitization backlog, no fast internet, massive deficiencies in infrastructure and ailing schools,” said Reitzle.

The examples of deficits are shameful for a leading industrial country. “Yes, the Merkel years are an example that it would be better to limit top mandates to ten years.”