Germany’s Merz Pulls the Old Magoo Again, and It’s a Whopper

Holy smokes – Germany’s new chancellor, Friedrich Merz, is a conniving slimeball of epic proportions. 

I hope every last German who was so angry at what Olaf Scholz and the Greens had done to them, but voted for Merz because they were too intimidated by the ‘far-right’ noise surrounding the populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, enjoys every last minute of getting their trust chucked back in their face repeatedly.

The Old Magoo refers to a scene in Christmas in Connecticut (you can watch it in my original post on it here) where a hospitalized Navy sailor is advised to sweeten up his nurse to get fed what he wants, even to the point of a wedding proposal. In theory, what got you what you wanted can also get you out of the situation you created.

Merz has desperately wanted to be the chancellor of Germany ever since growing up politically at the knee of his mentor, Angela Merkel. The frustration for Merz was much like England’s King Charles – Merkel never seemed like she was going to leave. When she finally did, Merz was left out in the cold as other men stepped into those chancellor’s shoes.

When Olaf Scholz’s coalition blew apart last fall, Merz saw his last, best shot, but it was also compromised by the rise of Alice Weidel’s AfD. Political animal that he was. MErz had his CDU tack to the center to attract those hesitant Germans who wanted radical change with the next government, but didn’t necessarily feel radical enough themselves to vote for a populist, possibly really radical upstart party.

Merz made sure he was their safe alternative, promising firm but softer versions of actions that mirrored many of the AfD’s positions on immigration, national debt brake, Ukraine, NetZero, utility costs, etc – a whole host of promises.

He squeaked out a win, freezing the second-place AfD out of power in a shaky coalition with Scholz’s Social Democrats (SPD) and the Greens again. And has proceeded to go on a promise-breaking tear for the ages. First, the closed borders plan vanished, then the debt brake was abolished, and a plan to explode the national debt for EU defense spending proposed.

BOOM BOOM BOOM

It seems the chancellor’s not done yet, if today’s news is anything to go by.

There is what’s known as the ‘electricity tax’, and the German version is particularly onerous compared to the rest of the EU. It’s one of those classic authoritarian restrictions meant to impede usage by punitive financial measures – make it so expensive to use, people use less. The EUs minimum electrical tax is €1MW hr. Germany’s is twenty times that, bringing in over €5B a year to government coffers, and they charge you as a consumer even if you produce your own electricity.

It’s one helluva money-making racket.

…In 1999, the Electricity Tax Act introduced a tax on electric power. It is to help achieve climate policy objectives by encouraging a more sparing use of electricity. It also serves to lower and stabilise pension contribution rates. Part of the tax revenue from the electricity tax goes toward reducing contribution rates for social security.

The tax is levied on electricity drawn from the public grid for consumption or on electricity that is generated and used by the consumers themselves. The tax is collected from either the utility or consumers, if these generate their own electricity. In most cases, electricity is drawn from the grid by a final consumer. If this is the case, the tax is owed by the utility providing the electricity. If the consumer themselves generate their own electricity, the tax will be levied from them. The customs administration is responsible for collecting the tax, which accrues to the federal budget.

The electricity tax on power supplied to household customers is 2.05 ct/kWh.

And yet another load on overburdened German consumers. 

Lowering it substantially – to the EU minimum – had been a central campaign promise.

…In the run-up to the February 2025 general election, the CDU had campaigned on cutting the tax back to the European minimum value, which would have saved an average German family around €90 per year.

Or it was until today.

Der Kanzler bricht sein nächstes Wahlversprechen. Merz kann sich beim fünfstündigen Krisentreffen nicht gegen die SPD durchsetzen: Die Stromsteuer für Verbraucher bleibt – der Vertrauensverlust wächst.https://t.co/pFpZUPSYn2

— JUNGE FREIHEIT (@Junge_Freiheit) July 3, 2025

The Chancellor breaks his next campaign promise. Merz fails to prevail against the SPD in the five-hour crisis meeting: The electricity tax for consumers remains – the loss of trust grows.

Merz and Co. are like, ‘Sorry. We’ve got bills to pay. Maybe later.’ 

The German government is set to maintain one of the Europe’s highest electricity taxation rates, despite an electoral promise to slash it to the minimum allowed under EU law.

…However, following a political back-and-forth between the Christian Democrats and Social Democrats, the government said tax cuts were off the table until “fiscal leeway exists.” 

But with the coalition already committed taking on an extra €500 billion of government debt, a fifth of which is earmarked for the green transition, it is unclear when that moment is to be expected.

Michaela Engelmeier, head of social association SoVD, described the cancellation of the tax cut as a “fatal signal”. Consumers needed “tangible relief,” she told German press agency dpa.

How happy those consumers will be to know their electrical rates are still paying ‘for the green transition.’ That’s gone so well.

Merz is mewling that Germany can only spend money it has. Hard-pressed German households and industries might normally have fallen for the line, but they realize only too well that the country certainly doesn’t have the money for this, either. 

Germany this week is discussing a new government budget with the largest green spending program in the country’s history — supporting everything from upgraded power grids and geothermal energy to more climate-friendly public transport. Yet buried within the more than 3,000 pages of text are some surprising setbacks for climate action.

But Merz is spending it.

In the meantime, says the always solicitous German government, ‘Calm down. Here’s a little something for mothers.’

Gosh. That should help.

…As a consolation for the CDU, the coalition committee decided to move up the introduction of a “mothers’ pension” by a year, a pet project of Bavarian CDU leader Markus Söder.

…Merz’s failure to secure his election promise was met with displeasure by many in the CDU.

Thorsten Alsleben, director of pro-business lobbying group INSM, wrote in a post on X on July 2: “No electricity tax cut, but an orgy of spending on pensions.

“The decisions of the coalition committee are a document of denial of reality.”

German industrial groups didn’t find the mothers’ pension very helpful.

…The decision prompted further sharp criticism, with the DIHK industry lobby calling it “a fatal signal to the industrial sector at the wrong time.”

“In hardly any other country do companies have to pay as much for electricity as in Germany,” DIHK President Peter Adrian said in an emailed statement. “We therefore urgently need to reduce energy costs for the entire German economy.”

…Monika Schnitzer, the chair of the government’s Council of Economic Experts, said the government’s decision was “regrettable” and questioned the coalition’s priorities.

“Other planned measures, such as increasing pensions for mothers and reducing VAT for the catering industry, are similarly expensive, but much less justifiable in times of tight budgets,” Schnitzer was quoted as saying Thursday by the Funke media group.

The days of socialists doling out pension candy when everyday costs are out of control are over. The peasants now notice when scarce funds are still being spent on the policies that drove their standard of living into a ditch to begin with.

I watched a really interesting video by a German expat a couple of weeks ago. One thing he said really struck me in relation to why these European countries remain this way, with governments repeating the same in-your-face lies and abusing their voters’ obvious intentions, with few, if any, repercussions.

What he said was that Europeans are still died in the wool peasants at heart. Oh, they get mad, feel abused, and swear they’re not going to take it anymore, but they do. This allows the feudal lords, now in government castles in Brussels, Paris, or Berlin, etc – they are still very much an aristocracy –  to do as they wish, even as voters buzz and natter about change.

He said America’s different. We answer to no one and expect…no, demand our leaders be public servants, not anointed rulers. And those servants answer to us.

There might be a certain lag between an American elected official’s overreach and when he – and his party, if necessary – get the boot, but get the electoral boot they do.

In Europe, things often eventually explode in much bloodier fashion, descend into wholesale chaos, and never shake out the day after.

Having watched it for these few years, I also see the wisdom of our electoral system, versus a popular vote or that gridlocked parliamentary system roundabout with its negotiations at every step of the process.

Founding Fathers’ wisdom. Those old boys knew what they were leaving behind, why they set us up in the specific fashion they did, and didn’t they set us up the best for success, for sure.

It’s really something watching Europe, especially the Germans, right now. Even if they wanted to say ‘enough,’ how do they ensure that happens?

Beats me.