The Big Picture
Vincent Boland: German economy will need to harness its heft to achieve takeoff
The heavyweight of Europe, there is no doubt the country has the skills and resources required to do what it takes to become more dynamic and sustainable, but it seems to lack the courage to try
As a metaphor it is almost too perfect. Germany’s foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, had to cancel an official trip to Oceania last month after her plane was grounded with a technical fault that not even those fabled German engineers could fix. She had been due to spend a week in Australia, New Zealand and Fiji projecting her country’s economic, diplomatic and soft power.
After being forced to return home, Baerbock declared the mishap “more than ...
