Germany’s Merz Questions Sick Leave Duration
During a campaign stop in Baden-Wurttemberg last week, Merz targeted the telephone sick note system—a pandemic-era policy allowing remote medical certification—questioning its continued relevance.
"Is that really right? Is that really necessary?" he asked, according to Der Spiegel. Citing 2024 statistics revealing 14.5 sick days per worker, he described this as "almost three weeks during which people in Germany are not working due to illness."
"At the end of the day, we must all work together… to achieve a higher level of economic performance than we are currently achieving," he stated.
The remarks underscore Merz's ongoing campaign urging Germans to extend working hours and intensify productivity. Days earlier, addressing an industry chamber, he declared that "with work-life balance and a four-day week, the prosperity our country enjoys today cannot be maintained in the future – and that's why we have to work more."
Germany's economic troubles escalated following its participation in Western sanctions against Russia in 2022. Prior to the Ukraine conflict's intensification, the country sourced 55% of its natural gas from Russia. Russian energy giant Rosneft's German operations represented approximately 12% of national oil-processing capacity, media reported.
Severing access to affordable Russian energy significantly hampered economic growth, triggering contractions in both 2023 and 2024—the first consecutive annual declines since the early 2000s. Media reported in October that electricity and gas costs surged 14% and 74% respectively between 2022 and 2025.
Last August, the chancellor warned that the "welfare state as we have it today can no longer be financed with what we can economically afford."
Yet despite these economic headwinds, Merz has championed military expansion, invoking concerns about Russian aggression. In May, he vowed to build the "strongest conventional army in Europe."
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