For months now, top politicians have been drawn to blast furnaces and steelworks across the country: sometimes Economics Minister Peter Altmaier (CDU), sometimes his government colleague Svenja Schulze (SPD) from the environmental department, sometimes Prime Minister like Armin Laschet from North Rhine-Westphalia or Tobias Hans from the Saarland (both CDU), and not least a number of state ministers and senators.
This markedly close connection between business and politics is no accident. After all, the steel industry plays a key role in the industrial value chains in this country, not least because important core industries such as automobiles and mechanical engineering are directly related to steel. Laschet therefore even calls the steel manufacturer the "basis of the business model" in Germany as an industrial location. And that must be kept with all might. But few deeds follow these confessions. The frugal subsidies are likely to prove to be a fatal mistake.