The industry hasn’t issued complaints against the measure because policymakers of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and UK Prime Minister Theresa May have specified they will get rid of coal in the next 10 years, that will in turn will help to get rid of greenhouse gases as a whole. The policymakers have promoted measures that will possibly maintain the cost of pollution on an upward curve through 2030.

The companies that are responsible for generating massive amounts of pollution have started implementing the measure to curb pollution. While companies like Volkswagen and RWE are inclining towards renewables, some are stocking coal before the price surges.

“For a five-year-plus period, this market was in the desert,” said Per Lekander, a fund manager at Lansdowne Partners UK LLP in London, “What’s happened over the past five months is the investment community is getting behind it again and putting on positions.”

“We are very much in favour of the European Emissions Trading System,” said Klaus Schaefer, chief executive officer of the German power generator Uniper SE, “In order to deliver the CO2 reductions that we all agreed to in Europe, you will have to see higher prices.”

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Chancellor Angela Merkel had been trying to build a coalition government amid Christian Democratic Union (CDU), Christian Social Union (CSU), FDP and the Green party. With FDP taking its steps back, not only has the formation of the coalition government stumbled, but also has put Germany step into political jeopardy and Merkel’s continual of fourth term in troubled waters.

Against the yen, the euro went down 0.6% and fell 0.5% against the US dollars. It was as low as 0.43% against the pound at €1.125.

Migration has been a topic of political controversy during the coalition talks. It was an intense negotiation of a month after which Linder waved his party off the discussions of the coalition government. Lindner who considers there is ‘no basis of trust’ between them, said, “The four discussion partners have no common vision for modernisation of the country or common basis of trust. It is better not to govern than to govern badly.”

While formally announcing the failure of the coalition talks and the next steps, Merkel said, “I will inform the German President about the state of affairs and then we have to see how this develops further.

“It’s a day of deep reflection of at least how to go forward in Germany. As chancellor, I will do everything to ensure that this country is well-managed in the difficult weeks to come,” she assured.

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The result gives Merkel her fourth term as German chancellor.

Even though the CDU/CSU are ahead of the other parties, their performance is the worst in several decades. The German Bundestag has 630 seats. The CDU/CSU will get just over 240 seats.

Their coalition partner SPD will get over 150 seats, but chairman Martin Schulz said the outcome meant the end of the ‘grand coalition’ that has been in power since 2013. Deputy party leader Manuela Schwesig believes that the mandate is for them to sit in the opposition. If they don’t, the AfD will become the leader of the opposition.

The performance of the AfD has caused concern among Germans. It is the first time that a far-right party will get seats in the Bundestag. The votes came from the people who were unhappy with Merkel welcoming refugees. After the results were declared, some people took to the streets of Berlin shouting slogans that refugees are welcome.

Merkel quickly addressed the people who voted for the AfD. She promised to listen to their ‘concerns, worries and anxieties’ and get them back to the CDU/CSU.

But right now, with the exit of the SPD, she will need coalition partners. The options are the liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP) and the Greens. While the FDP might be amenable to working in the government, the Greens could pose a challenge as their policies clash with that of the government.
Merkel needs more than a simple majority to push through her agenda for Germany and Europe. Industry leaders have already voiced concern about the fractured mandate and are asking for stability.

Fourth term
Following the 2005 election, Merkel was appointed Germany’s first female Chancellor at the head of a grand coalition consisting of the CDU, its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU), and the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). In the 2009 federal election, the CDU obtained the largest share of the vote and Merkel was able to form a coalition government with the support of the Free Democratic Party (FDP). In the 2013 federal election, Merkel’s CDU won a landslide victory with 41.5% of the vote and formed a second grand coalition with the SPD after the FDP lost all of its representation in the Bundestag.

The post Angela Merkel is back, but with a big problem appeared first on International Finance.

For months, the woman now dubbed the “eternal chancellor” has been the favourite over her centre-left rival Martin Schulz and looked set to win another term and match the 16-year reign of her mentor Helmut Kohl.

Ms. Merkel’s conservative bloc is on track to remain the largest group in parliament, opinion polls indicated, but a fracturing of the political landscape may well make it harder for her to form a ruling coalition than previously.

But the election is also expected to mark a milestone for the four-year-old Alternative for Germany (AfD) which, like right-wing populists elsewhere, rails against migrants, Muslims and mainstream parties.

It has been polling at 11-13 percent and could become Germany’s third strongest party, driven by anger over the influx of one million migrants and refugees, many from war-torn Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, since 2015.
About Angela Mekel
Angela Dorothea Merkel is a German politician and Chancellor of Germany since 2005. She has also been the leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) since 10 April 2000. Merkel has been widely described as the de facto leader of the European Union, the most powerful woman in the world, and the leader of the free world.

A former research scientist with a doctorate in physical chemistry, Merkel entered politics in East Germany in the wake of the Revolutions of 1989, and briefly served as a deputy spokesperson for the first democratically elected East German Government headed by Lothar de Maizière in 1990. Following German reunification in 1990, Merkel was elected to the Bundestag for the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, and has been reelected ever since. Merkel was appointed as the Minister for Women and Youth in the federal government under Chancellor Helmut Kohl in 1991, and became the Minister for the Environment in 1994. After her party lost the federal election in 1998, Merkel was elected Secretary-General of the CDU before becoming the party’s first female leader two years later in the aftermath of a donations scandal that toppled Wolfgang Schäuble.

Following the 2005 federal election, Merkel was appointed Germany’s first female Chancellor at the head of a grand coalition consisting of the CDU, its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU), and the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). In the 2009 federal election, the CDU obtained the largest share of the vote and Merkel was able to form a coalition government with the support of the Free Democratic Party (FDP). At the 2013 federal election, Merkel’s CDU won a landslide victory with 41.5% of the vote and formed a second grand coalition with the SPD, after the FDP lost all of its representation in the Bundestag

The post Angela Merkel heads for German poll win appeared first on International Finance.

‘Vision 2030’ has been an endeavor for the country in its process of cutting down its dependency on oil and boost revenue through other industrial sectors.

Top administrative officials at the engineering multinational and the business officials of the software companies travelling with Merkel have signed declarations of intent to work with the Saudi personnel. Some of the dignitaries include the chief executives of Lufthansa, national railway operator Deutsche Bahn, and industrial services group Bilfinger.

Siemens signed a framework agreement with the Saudi National Industrial Clusters Development Program (NICDP). The German group opines that this could result in equipping infrastructure projects of a minimum value of a billion euros.

While Siemens want to provide vocational training in Saudi Arabia, SAP has decided with the Saudi Ministry of Planning to assist in the country’s digitization journey.

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IFM Correspondent

December 21, 2016: A senior financial analyst has claimed that if Deutsche bank is allowed to fail it may bring down the entire European banking system. Ewen Cameron Watt, a senior director at investment managers Blackrock Investment Institute, told CNBC: “If Deutsche Bank doesn’t make it, forget European banks as a whole.”

The analyst added that the bank has got through a lot of harder stuff but there are still many mountains ahead. “John Cryan, chief executive officer, Deutsche bank, is trying to lead a very long march back to a sustainable model,” he said.

Germany’s largest lender has been facing a tough time. It has a fine of $14billion from the US Department of Justice for misselling of residential mortgage-backed securities in the run-up to the 2008 financial crisis.

A settlement between the German bank and the US department regarding the fine is expected to reach this week.

Apart from fine, there are several regulatory issues that the bank is facing. Though German Chancellor Angela Merkel can step in and bail out the bank, reports suggest she is against the move ahead of elections. Merkel has been at the receiving end because of her open-door migrant policy.

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IFM Correspondent

November 24, 2016: European Parliament leaders told London’s Brexit negotiator on Tuesday that Britain should expect to be shut out of cooperation in areas it values once it leaves the European Union.

David Davis met Guy Verhofstadt, the EU legislature’s lead Brexit negotiator, and Manfred Weber, a conservative ally of German Chancellor Angela Merkel who leads the biggest bloc in the parliament.

The meetings are part of preparations before Prime Minister Theresa May starts negotiating in March under Article 50 of EU treaty.

Weber voiced impatience with a lack of clarity from May on what she will ask for.

He said a suggestion from Davis that Britain remain in or closely tied to the EU’s single market while rejecting free immigration by Europeans or the oversight of EU courts was not workable.

“Brexit means Brexit,” he said in Strasbourg, echoing May’s famously opaque definition of what her government will ask for following the June referendum vote to leave the Union.

“I see a British government that keeps saying where it wants to cooperate closely and not how it wants to leave the European Union,” he told reporters after meeting Davis.

He said Davis voiced an interest in maintaining economic ties and also close cooperation in areas such as justice and criminal affairs.

“So I must stress again: Brexit means Brexit, that means leaving the European Union, that means cutting off relations … and not cherry picking, not special relationships,” Weber said.

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23rd September 2013

German Chancellor Angela Merkel scored a resounding victory against her rivals in the national elections in Germany and in the process becoming the only major leader to be re-elected twice since the financial downturn of 2008. At the time of writing this article, her Christian Democratic Union (CDU) took 42 percent of the votes, five seats short of an absolute majority in the lower house. The results which were declared on Sunday gives the Merkel led Christian Democratic Union and its ally Christian Social Union with 311 seats in Parliament, the Social Democrats won 192 seats, the Greens 63 while the Left party improved its tally to 64 seats. During the election campaign Merkel and Peer Steinbrueck, a former finance minister in Merkel’s government had clashed over centre left calls for tax increases on high earners and a mandatory minimum national wage, Merkel, rejected both the ideas, arguing they would hurt the economy.

Allies Face Biggest Defeat

Despite the “overwhelming” results and a personal victory for Merkel, her allies fared poorly with the liberal Free Democrats (FDP) winning only 4.8 percent of the total votes polled and leaving it with no national representation in parliament for the first time in Germany’s post war history. Party chairman Philipp Roesler called it the “bitterest, saddest hour of the Free Democratic Party”. The FDP was upstaged by Green Party which won 8.4 percent of the votes, former communist left party which won 8.56 percent of the votes and new entrants Alternative fuer Deutschland (AfD) which is a strong opponent of the Euro currency and advocates its withdrawal won 4.7 percent of the votes. Although, the three parties (excluding FDP) hold a thin parliamentary majority, chances of them forming a government is ruled out.

Numbers not Encouraging?

Merkel, 59, who in all likelihood will serve her third term, thanked her party campaigners, voters, supporters and her low profile husband, Joachim Sauer. Ms.Merkel who will head the government along with Social Democrats will have to face “testing times”, the centre left Social Democrats have allowed the passing of crucial bills to aid packages for crisis ridden euro zone countries, however, they would demand their share in the domestic reforms for a minimum wage and social reforms before they join the government. It all depends on the decision and the stand of the Social Democrats, whose leader Peer Steinbrueck said the “The ball is in Mrs Merkel’s court. She has to herself get a majority”. Steinbrueck, SPD’s first line leader had hoped to enter a coalition with the Green Party, but does not appear to have the votes to do so, and has ruled out a three way alliance with the left.

Most powerful female politician of all time?

Merkel’s rise to head one of the most powerful economies in the world is a captivating story, born in a small rural town in East Germany, her father Horst Kasner, a Lutheran Pastor moved the family to Templin shortly before the Berlin Wall was erected. She was immensely influenced by the secret police- the Stasi which taught her the importance of discretion and thought process. Strong in academics in her childhood, she impressed her teachers with skills in Maths and Languages; however, Science was young Merkel’s favourite subject. She continued studying Science with Physics as a major at the University of Leipzig, people who have seen Merkel since her early days say that that the characteristics that come from being a scientist have become one of her defining skills as a politician, Stefan Kornelius, in her authorized biography, “Angela Merkel – The Chancellor and her World” says the Chancellor shapes her world view in an analytical way, (unlike politicians who think the other way) she weighs up arguments, collects facts industriously and analyses the positive and negative effects of the same. Stefan Kornelius says “She admires people with qualities that are not her own, but prefers to work her way steadily forward”. The all powerful German Chancellor credited for her decision making and raising funds for the debt stricken Euro economies started her career as a “quantum chemist” after her P.hd at the Academy of Sciences in East Berlin before joining a small independent party, the Democratic Awakening, shortly before the collapse of Berlin Wall in 1989. Her capabilities, decision making prowess and analytical abilities led to her meteoric rise in the party rankings, by the time the Berlin Wall fell in 1990, Merkel was working as a deputy press secretary to the East German premier. She witnessed the rapid financial collapse of East Germany after reunification and her peers say that this experience has given her a great lesson to handle the Euro crisis.

Adept handling of Euro Crisis

Merkel’s handling of the euro crisis with harsh “austerity” measures has seen her being re elected and most Germans seem to approve her handling of the crisis. She has been rewarded for handling of the currency and sovereign debt crisis in other countries, in the Euro Zone voters have punished the governments, since the Greek crisis compounded in 2010, 12 governments have fallen in Euro zone, whether of the left or of the right, Merkel is the only leader to buck this trend. Despite the currency crisis looming large at the Euro zone, German living standards, export competitiveness, jobs and prosperity have remained the same while disaster has struck other countries in the Euro Zone with countries such as Greece, Portugal needing another round of bailouts. Germany is the No.2 in the most productive economies among the G-7 nations after United States based on GDP per hours worked, its unemployment is the second lowest in Europe, it has seen an economic growth of 0.7 percent in the second quarter and managed to stave off the recession in the last 18 months.

“Give or take a few details, Germany’s euro policies are based on strong public support and a virtual consensus of all mainstream parties. The strong support for Merkel herself and her party underscores that point” said Holger Schmieding, chief economist at Berenberg Bank.

Critics review her as a boring, sober leader who lacks strategic vision relying on tactical acumen. Her critics also accuse her of not using power to show case Germany to the world both at home and in Europe.

Our View

In a time where publicity and favouritism can seem to trump over policy and substance, Merkel is an exception to the rule. Her strong leadership and austerity measures have seen the Euro zone come out of recession, her negotiation skills and ability to deliver make up for what she lacks in charm and charisma. The results have clearly validated Merkel’s policies and leadership style making her only the third post-war Chancellor to win three successive elections.

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