In Germany, everything looks like a crisis of governance
Why this matters: political developments that affect policy direction and public trust.
Germany didn’t just crash out of the World Cup on Monday night. For some, the defeat looked like something bigger: yet another national institution losing its nerve. The 2014 World Cup champion, which has struggled at every major tournament since 2016, suffered a bruising defeat against Paraguay, losing 3-4 on penalties to be dumped out of the tournament hosted in the Americas. But Die Mannschaft is not the only German national institution failing to live up to expectations. “This national team plays the way this federal government governs: big on ambition, short on resolve. Everyone struggles on their own, no one takes responsibility, and when luck finally does appear, the goal doesn’t count,” wrote German Member of the European Parliament Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann on X, referring to a controversially disallowed goal made during overtime, which would have brought Germany victory. There is “always a link between sport and politics,” said professor of political science Alexander Straßner — and Europe’s largest economy is no exception. Much like its men’s soccer team, over the last decade, the country’s automotive sector and industrial backbone have lost much of their former shine. When Germany crushed Brazil 7-1 in the 2014 World Cup semifinals before going on to win football’s most prestigious tournament for a fourth time, Volkswagen was on the verge of becoming the world’s largest automaker. Last week, that same company announced tens of thousands of job cuts, with major automotive supplier Bosch planning similarly large-scale layoffs. Unemployment in the country has now climbed to its highest level since the Covid pandemic, and economic growth remains weak. A nation once synonymous with delivering on performance, reliability, efficiency and engineering excellence is now better known for its chronically delayed trains, infrastructure mega-projects plagued by years of holdups and ballooning costs, and ailing automotive industry. Germany’s international standing