German Chancellor Merz booed at DGB congress over reform plans
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz was repeatedly booed and heckled by delegates at the German Trade Union Confederation (DGB) congress in Berlin on May 12, 2026, as he defended his government's planned reforms to healthcare, pensions, and the welfare state. Merz argued that Germany must modernize to preserve prosperity, calling pension reform the "toughest nut to crack" and attributing the need for change to "demography and mathematics." DGB chair Yasmin Fahimi warned against "too hectic" steps and rejected plans to loosen the eight-hour workday, saying "We do not want to be thrown back to times before 1918."
Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) was repeatedly booed, heckled, and whistled at by delegates at the German Trade Union Confederation (DGB) congress in Berlin on May 12, 2026, as he defended his coalition government's planned reforms to healthcare, pensions, and the welfare state.
Addressing about 400 DGB delegates, Merz argued that Germany must modernize to preserve prosperity. "We have simply failed to modernize our country," he said. "Germany must therefore pull itself together." He warned that Germany is losing more than 100,000 industrial jobs each year and said the country cannot continue on its current path.
Merz called pension reform the "toughest nut to crack" and attributed the need for change to "demography and mathematics." "None of this is malice on my part or on the part of the federal government," he insisted. "It is demography and mathematics." The line drew another wave of boos and whistles from the audience. Merz also said: "We need this joint search for ways to move our country forward."
The coalition government approved a healthcare cost-cutting package in late April. Germany's inflation rate rose to 2.9% in April, with energy prices up 10.1% year-on-year, according to the Federal Statistical Office.
Merz was the first CDU chancellor to address the DGB congress in eight years; Angela Merkel last spoke there in 2018. A DeutschlandTrend survey published May 7 found only 13% of Germans satisfied with the coalition's work.
DGB chair Yasmin Fahimi, who was reelected on May 11 with 96% of the vote, warned against "too hectic" steps and rejected plans to loosen the eight-hour workday. "We do not want to be thrown back to times before 1918," she said, referring to the year the eight-hour day was introduced. Fahimi told Merz the audience was "not exactly the kind of audience" that would uncritically support the chancellor.
Vice Chancellor Lars Klingbeil (SPD) also addressed the DGB congress on May 11 and faced criticism over the coalition's reform plans.