When the coalition of Friedrich Merz’s CDU, its Bavarian sister party the CSU, and the centre-left SPD promised “a comprehensive rollback of bureaucracy” in their agreement last April, expectations were high. New polling, however, suggests citizens and businesses have seen almost no change.
A YouGov survey found that 66% of respondents feel administrative burdens have remained the same since the government took office, while 22% say they have increased. A separate poll conducted for the European Center for Digital Competitiveness at ESCP Business School in Berlin of business respondents found only 4% thought bureaucracy had decreased and 8% were unsure.
Among managers, 63% said bureaucratic red tape was unchanged, 31% reported an increase and just 4% saw any reduction. Roughly half of managers said they had delayed or cancelled projects in the past year because administrative procedures were too slow or complex.
Survey participants identified the greatest need for digital improvements in healthcare and local administrative offices, followed by tax services and construction permit processes.
“People don’t want more announcements; they want the state to finally just work,” said Philip Meissner, founder of the Center for Digital Competitiveness at ESCP. His co-founder, Klaus Schweinsberg, argued the findings show Merz has “clearly failed” on core competitiveness goals such as digitisation and cutting bureaucracy.
The story also highlights ongoing problems with the foreign medical worker programme, which remains mired in administrative hurdles. Edited by: Jenipher Camino Gonzalez.