Chancellor Merz’s coalition has agreed to place tight restrictions on welfare recipients and promote the purchase of German-made electric vehicles. The news came ahead of a major auto industry summit. DW has more.
Here are the latest headlines from across Germany on Thursday, October 9:
Police shot and wounded a man thought to be carrying a firearm in central Düsseldorf on Thursday. 
Police said the man was seen brandishing a weapon near a fast-food restaurant on a large commercial street. 
It was not clear if the weapon was real or a replica, police said, but the man did not heed orders to lay it on the ground. 
At that point, police opened fire, hitting the man at least once. He was treated by an emergency doctor at the scene and then taken to hospital injured. 
Police cordoned off a large are of the street amid the operation.
A glass of Glühwein, or mulled wine, at Germany’s Christmas markets this year is liable to cost at least €5 (not including the deposit for the mug) this winter, according to a newspaper report on Thursday. 
The head of the German Federation of Wine Cellers, Peter Rotthaus, said in an interview with the Rheinische Post newspaper that he anticipated average prices to rise by at least 10% this year compared to 2024. 
Rotthaus named a number of reasons for this, but primarily he cited what appears to be a poor harvest year internationally for fruit wines. 
He also said that costs including freight, packaging, wages and energy all contributed to the rising prices. 
Rotthaus also said consumers should expect quite large regional variations in prices based on local conditions. His federation estimates that Germans and visiting tourists consume around 50 million liters of mulled wine in a bid to stay warm and lubricated at Christmas markets each winter.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has spoken out against the EU’s current goal of phasing out new cars with internal combustion engines by 2035, only allowing the registration of new electric vehicles by that date. 
Merz was speaking at a summit with other German political leaders and leading representatives of the country’s struggling car industry. 
“Such a hard cutoff in 2035 will not take place, if I have anything to do with it, and I will do all I can to achieve this,” Merz said in Berlin. 
Deputy Chancellor Lars Klingbeil, a member of the Social Democrats and so the leading representative of Merz’s junior coalition partner, had also signaled a willingness for changes to the plans.
In particular, he cited cars like plug-in hybrids, so-called range extenders (fuel-powered generators used to augment an electric motor and battery pack with a fraction of the fuel needed to power a traditional engine) and those using innovative fuel mixtures.
The EU set the target of registering no new fuel-powered cars as of 2035 in 2022. Many industry leaders have voiced doubts in the feasibility of the proposal, and some have even questioned its environmental credentials. The EU itself is now racing to review the policy proposal, perhaps with an eye to compromise.
Germany is scrambling to try to prop up its renowned car industry, which has been struggling with increased competition from China, decreased demand for cars in general in Europe, new barriers to trade in the US and China, and an array of other issues as well as the transition toward electric motoring. 
More than 50,000 jobs were lost in the car sector in Germany in 2024, a recent study found.
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Germany’s DAX index has hit a new all-time high, eclipsing the previous record level set this July. 
The benchmark index rose 0.5% to a high of 24,708.97 points during Thursday’s trade.
The DAX has been buoyant so far in October, rising by roughly 3.5% during the month.
Factors including the potential reduction in tensions in the Middle East and hopes for a cut in interest rates in the US and possibly from the European Central Bank are thought to play a role.
However, the signals on trading floors remain mixed, at best. While western indices broadly continue their largely inexplicable and accelerated upward trend of recent years, renonwed “safe haven” investments like gold remain in extreme demand — which is usually a sign of low investor confidence.
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Germans are booking significantly fewer trips to the United States this winter, according to the DRV travel association. The group predicted a 27% drop in sales for the November to April season.
Over the summer, bookings to the US had been about one-fifth lower than the previous year, DRV said.
Increasing costs may be a factor, as well as the fact that Germany updated its travel advisory for the US in March. The warning stated that a valid ESTA visa waiver was not a guarantee for entry into the United States after a string of high-profile detentions of ordinary Germans by US immigration authorities.
In contrast, the DRV reported that winter trips to Southeast Asia and Africa are expected to climb by 16% and 25%, respectively.  
Britta Hasselmann, parliamentary leader of the opposition Green party, slammed the government’s planned reforms shortly after they were announced. Hasselmann called the proposals “cold-hearted and inhumane” as well as “unconstitutional.”
“The CDU and SPD want to take away everything people need to live,” Hasselmann told the German news agency dpa, saying the reforms take away money for food and housing, including from families with children.
“It would also be unconstitutional,” she said, because the state has “a responsibility and a welfare state that provides for a sociocultural minimum standard of living.”
Those on the right, however, celebrated the news. Markus Söder, the leader of the CDU’s Bavarian sister party, the CSU, hailed that a form of basic income for welfare recipients was “history.”
There was also criticism launched at the SPD for abandoning its dedication to a robust social welfare state, but party leadership seemed to have little time for nay-sayers, particularly from the SPD’s left flank.
“We are tightening sanctions to the limit of what is constitutionally permissible,” Minister for Labor and Social Affairs Bärbel Bas of the SPD said.
Germany’s governing coalition presented their final agreement for package of reforms that has been heavily touted by Chancellor Merz for months.
The marathon discussions lasted most of Wednesday and well into the night, amid claims there has been significant opposition to many of Merz’s plans from the more left-leaning members of junior coalition partner the SPD.
However, the parties showed a united front on Thursday morning, announcing tigher restrictions on social welfare payments, changes to the pension system, and new subsidies for electric vehicles in response to competition from China.
“We will significantly strengthen obligations to cooperate and we will also significantly increase the possibilities for sanctions,” Merz said of the changes to the German welfare system.
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German automakers are expected to press for fresh incentives to revive demand for electric vehicles during crunch talks with Chancellor Friedrich Merz in Berlin. Sales have slumped and jobs have been slashed amidst increasing competition from China.
Read more: German chancellor calls auto summit as carmakers bleed jobs
Guten Morgen from the DW newsroom in Bonn.
Today, the German governing coalition is expected to present the results of its closed-door summit amidst rumors of increasing tension between Chancellor Friedrich Merz‘s center-right Christian Democrats (CDU) and their junior coalition partners, the center-left Social Democrats (SPD).
Merz will then be holding a major meeting for car industry representatives as he tries to revive Germany’s flagging automotive sector.
Check back here for the latest headlines from across Germany.

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