Wolfgang Münchau, the editor of the Eurointelligence newsletter, reports that this campaign is different because at least one party leader – Friedrich Merz of the Christian Democrats – is actually saying that the German economic model is broken and needs dramatic reform and pro-growth policies.
Specifically, Münchau explains, European anti-tech laws are crushing economic growth:
The fact that Germany, and other European countries, are failing to exploit their data is one of the deep causes behind this current, historically unusual, economic slump.
Europeans are protecting individuals from abuse of their data by companies.
Whereas the Americans are protecting the companies from outside hackers, but maintain a much lighter data protection regime. The Europeans thought they can force their general data protection regime onto the rest of the world.
The reality is that it is becoming unsustainable for Europe itself. Implemented in 2018, (the EU’s data law) was the beginning of a long series of anti-tech laws that is leaving Europe stuck in the digital dark ages.
