Former Bundesbank president Axel Weber has severely criticized the current German government’s performance. Speaking to the Handelsblatt, he argued that “Germany is reform-unwilling and reform-incapable.” Weber explained that the nation is unable to implement fundamental reforms due to an extremely complex political system that requires compromises across three levels of governmental authority. He noted that some reforms would necessitate constitutional changes, but currently, there is no political consensus for the necessary large majorities.
However, Weber holds significant hope in Europe, predicting that “there will be many structural reforms at the European level,” and that Germany will subsequently implement these rules. He expressed approval of Federal Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) for his initiative concerning a European capital market. Weber, who served as the President of the Bundesbank from 2004 to 2011 and later as Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Swiss giant UBS, is currently active as an investor and consultant.
Critically, Weber targeted the sale of a 4.5 percent stake in Commerzbank to the Italian competitor Unicredit in September 2024, a divestiture initiated by the federal government for Germany’s second-largest private bank. “The Federal Government acted very unhappily during the 2024 auction,” Weber stated. He hypothesized that if the government had organized the auction differently, for instance, by consciously selling the stake to various institutional investors, “we would probably be in a different situation today.”
