The first one is on

multilateralism versus nationalism or bilateralism.

And I see with a lot of concern the move away from multilateralism uh in recent years over the last 10 15 years i i fully agree with your argument about hyper globalization um that globalization has been has gone too far you have been making this argument at least i believe for 25 years or even longer uh that um the benefits of globalization um first of all have been exaggerated uh second have not been shared but equally and has created a lot of losers But in particular, if I look at all the big challenges that we as mankind face today, they're really shared challenges and problems.

Of course, sustainability, climate change requires a coordinated approach, right? And If some countries do their work and try to push, it doesn't solve necessarily the issue and it might actually create a race to the bottom.

And that's an argument you hear a lot in Europe, in particular in Germany, the automotive sector.

So why should we shift away from the combustion engine towards electric cars? We are great at doing combustion engines.

All the others are not sticking to their climate objectives.

So I think it's that upper bit, which is a problem in all of our countries and globally in a way.

But, uh, Marcel, I think that was a question to you, so do you wanna pick it up there?

Yeah.

No, they're very good points.

To be very clear, companies should pay lower taxes.

This is important, and this is partly actually part of the coalition agreement last year that the government promised to implement, is to lower taxation for corporates, and I think that is necessary for a revival.

There are a number of points, but let's start with the money, because the money is really crucial for pretty much everything.

There is no country in the world that is taxing labor more and at the same time taxing wealth less than Germany.

Um, what is your observation in terms of how rational the debate is on these reforms? And with Merz having declared the economy as the measuring stick for his own success, was that a mistake that he made?

Also die brauchen ja schnell Hilfe.

Ja.

Es wird schnell keine, keine Lösung geben.

Denn der Grund, weshalb die Energiekosten hoch ist, hoch sind, ist, weil wir immer noch Öl und Gas importieren.

Ja, die, die Strompreise werden am Markt gesetzt und die werden von der, äh, von, von, von dem Kraftwerk gesetzt, die die höchsten Kosten haben.

Das ist immer Öl oder Gas oder meistens Gaskraftwerke.

Das heißt, erneuerbare Energien sind deutlich günstiger bei den Herstellungskosten.

Äh, wie blicken Sie auf diese aktuelle Debatte und was glauben Sie, was kommt da raus bei 'ner Steuerreform?