“Ministry for social market economy“

Economy minister Sigmar Gabriel’s statement on the performance of Germany’s economy in 2016 has been a self-complacent stocktaking, Christoph Eisenring writes in an opinion piece for Neue Zürcher Zeitung. Gabriel stated he would have done “nothing” differently and achieved “everything” he wanted, comparing himself to Germany’s first post-war economy minister Ludwig Erhard, author of a book called “Prosperity for all”, Eisenring says. Erhard’s conviction was that freedom of competition had to be the paramount principle of successful economic policy, he writes. But Gabriel strongly increased the state’s influence over many industry sectors, and especially over the energy industry, according to Eisenring. “Maybe the Social Democrat Gabriel has made a free interpretation”, if he calls his administration the “ministry for social market economy”, he writes.

For background on central Energiewende legislation, see the CLEW dossier The reform of the Renewable Energy Act.