Chancellor Friedrich Merz will host new WEF President Alois Zwinggi in Berlin on Tuesday evening. Around 50 CEOs are attending the meeting. The event takes place against a backdrop of geopolitical tensions.
The meeting between politics and business is overshadowed by difficult conditions. These include punitive tariffs from Donald Trump, the war in Iran and Russian aggressions on the NATO flank. Added to this is the end of the German-French fighter jet project FCAS. Claudia Major of the German Marshall Fund warned: “A divided Europe that dismantles itself and lacks central military capabilities only benefits Europe’s adversaries.” Hardly any other European country is as strongly affected by these developments as Germany. The federal government is currently seeking answers to the mentioned challenges.