Today: Government under pressure – are the reforms shaky? | Weak returns of German corporations

In Saxony-Anhalt, Tobias Rausch, an AfD politician, was elected president of the state parliament for the first time in the history of the Federal Republic on Tuesday. The AfD regional association in Saxony-Anhalt has been classified as “certainly right-wing extremist” by the state Office for the Protection of the Constitution since November 2023. In Berlin, Elif Eralp, a leftist who describes herself as a “radical” and whose regional association is partly viewed as anti-Semitic by the CDU, could move into the Red City Hall.

The coalition partners SPD and Union are now accusing each other of making common cause with the extreme fringes. And while all of this is happening, the federal government actually wants to push through key reforms this fall - in pensions, care and health. Is the government currently being crushed between the right and left political fringes? And what does that mean for the reform plans? This is what Handelsblatt political director Leila Al-Serori explains.

The focus of the episode is on the recently weak returns of BASF, Siemens and other large German companies. They are growing, but very few are more profitable than they were five years ago. While the US competition rushes away, the next restructuring follows.