Bloomberg: Deutsche Bank Defiance Unites Merkel Centrists, German Fringe

Deutsche Bank AG and Commerzbank AG’s merger talks have prompted rare unity across Germany’s fractious political spectrum: a collective thumbs down.

Apr 3rd, 2019

Bloomberg: Deutsche Bank Defiance Unites Merkel Centrists, German Fringe

"Lawmakers from Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic-led bloc to the anti-capitalist Left party and far-right AfD are laying into the plans. With the Social Democratic colleagues of Finance Minister Olaf Scholz also questioning the deal, the project’s main benefactor -- along with his deputy Joerg Kukies -- looks increasingly isolated. (...)

The resistance from coalition lawmakers creates a broad front opposing the deal. The Left party called a debate on the merger plans days after talks were announced, lambasting the plans. “You don’t get an eagle out of two sick turkeys,” the Left’s Fabio De Masi told Bundestag lawmakers on March 20. The environmental Greens have also voiced criticism, while Peter Boehringer, chairman of the Bundestag budget committee from the AfD, or Alternative for Germany, called it “pure state intervention.”