{"id":208789,"date":"2025-12-24T15:44:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-24T15:44:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/208789\/"},"modified":"2025-12-24T15:44:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-24T15:44:11","slug":"not-everyone-is-happy-about-the-transition-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/208789\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Not everyone is happy about the transition\u2019 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

For 40 years, East Germany embraced a pacifist motto with Biblical origins: \u201cbeating swords into ploughshares\u201d. <\/p>\n

But last week, a train factory in Germany<\/a>\u2019s easternmost city of G\u00f6rlitz abandoned the line from the book of Isaiah in favour of Joel: \u201cbeat your ploughshares into swords\u201d.<\/p>\n

After 176 years and 107,000 trains, a final, shiny red-and-white double-decker carriage rolled off the production line at the Alstom factory.<\/p>\n

In the new year, production here pivots to tank parts.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a really emotional day,\u201d said Jens Koep, head of the G\u00f6rlitz plant to local television.<\/p>\n

Ren\u00e9 Strabue, works council head of the factory, said the 500 workers were departing with feelings of \u201cwistfulness and anxiety\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cOverall, though, we hope we can look forward optimistically,\u201d he added, \u201cabove all in the interest of our city and region.\u201d<\/p>\n

Establishing where the interests of this region lie, however, is a complicated business. Tensions are growing between Germany\u2019s ascendant arms industry \u2013 some criticise it as a pre-war economy \u2013 and a traditionally pacifist worldview in G\u00f6rlitz.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Russia to shift forces to Nato\u2019s border after Ukraine peace deal, leaders warnOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

After the Alstom factory closes its doors in March, Franco-German armaments conglomerate KNDS moves in to make tank parts. It promised last May to keep on about 300 workers, though more recent reports suggesting the real number might be closer to just one fifth of that.<\/p>\n

\"RailwayRailway carriages being manufactured in G\u00f6rlitz. Photograph: Sean Gallup\/Getty <\/p>\n

G\u00f6rlitz mayor Octavian Ursu remains optimistic the deal will keep industrial jobs in town as an \u201cimportant motor for prosperity and development\u201d.<\/p>\n

With worries of war in Europe building once more, however, G\u00f6rlitz locals say their ambivalence about the new arms factory is secondary to harsh economic realities. Nearly six years of German economic stagnation has seen the jobless rate here jump to nearly 10 per cent.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0The German arms giant capitalising on renewed fear of RussiaOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Tapping into that ambivalence \u2013 and, historically, a more friendly attitude here towards Russia \u2013 is the local branch of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD). In last February\u2019s federal election in G\u00f6rlitz, the AfD took nearly every second vote \u2013 46.7 per cent \u2013 its second-best result in all of Germany. Local G\u00f6rlitz tradesman Tino Chrupalla has ascended to become AfD co-chairman at federal level. He knows just how delicate a line he has to walk in his constituency on this issue.<\/p>\n

Given the G\u00f6rlitz factory is being retooled rather than closed, Chrupalla has been unable to deploy the party\u2019s popular line of attack that Germany\u2019s failure to tackle high energy prices and red tape is killing off industrial production.<\/p>\n

And so, in a creative pivot, Chrupalla has criticised the incoming KDMS factory for allowing employees to work on tanks most likely being built for export.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe new KDNS plant in G\u00f6rlitz will manufacture components for Germany\u2019s bestselling Leopard 2 (above), Puma and Boxer tanks. Photograph: Mindaugas Kulbis\/AP <\/p>\n

\u201cWill the tanks remain in Germany?\u201d he asked in a Facebook post to his followers. \u201cAre investments in Ukraine a certain future investment?\u201d<\/p>\n

On a recent talkshow about the Ukraine war, Chrupalla pushed his pro-Russian line by suggesting Poland could be more of a threat to German security than Vladimir Putin.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s not done anything to me,\u201d said the AfD co-leader, prompting another guest to call him a \u201cRussia troll\u201d.<\/p>\n

Germany\u2019s ruling coalition justifies the pivot towards rearmament by pointing to Vladimir Putin\u2019s aggressive stance towards his neighbours. <\/p>\n

In mid-December, chancellor Friedrich Merz called Germany\u2019s massive rearmament \u201cthe price of peace\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to be so strong that no one attacks us,\u201d said Merz in the final Bundestag debate of the year. \u201cOr, put another way, we have to be able deter credibly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chrupalla\u2019s response in the Bundestag was to accuse the Merz government of \u201cramping up the escalation spiral in Europe\u201d.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0With dry ice and a laser show, Germany\u2019s new war machine gets star-studded launchOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are glad to have left the east-west conflict behind us,\u201d said Chrupalla, suggesting new military spending and conscription plans was \u201csummoning it up once more\u201d.<\/p>\n

The G\u00f6rlitz factory in Saxony is just one part of a wider picture of major German manufacturers pivoting to military production. With Germany\u2019s automobile industry in crisis, for instance, component-maker Schaeffler has signed deals with drone-maker Helsing worth half a billion euro.<\/p>\n

But such deals highlight the growing dilemma the AfD could face in 2026, particularly maintaining consistent Putin messaging across the country.<\/p>\n

Next September in eastern Saxony-Anhalt\u2019s state election, the AfD will do well with its claims that Germany\u2019s Ukraine aid and rearmament are acts of provocation towards Russia. Less so with the March election in the southwestern state of Baden-W\u00fcrttemberg, a German industrial heartland. <\/p>\n

For Trumpf, laser specialists near Stuttgart with 18,000 employees and a \u20ac4.3 billion fall in sales, the writing is on the wall.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe in business have to make a new assessment of our contribution to a well-fortified democracy,\u201d said Peter Leibinger, Trumpf co-owner and board chairman. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat means accepting the value of defence capacity and the necessary means for this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Back in G\u00f6rlitz, locals say the change in factory production from civil to military production has uncomfortable historical echoes. In the 1930s, during the build-up to the second World War, Nazi Germany ordered the G\u00f6rlitz plant to manufacture armoured personnel carriers.<\/p>\n

Some 90 years on, the new KDNS plant will manufacture components for Germany\u2019s bestselling Leopard 2, Puma and Boxer tanks. From 2027, however, production will be ramped up for tank bodies.<\/p>\n

Local union leaders insist it is good news when skilled industrial jobs are saved, particularly in a difficult economic climate and a traditionally weak economic region such as G\u00f6rlitz.<\/p>\n

But Mirko Schulze, regional head of the IG Metall metalworkers union, added: \u201cI can understand that not everyone is happy about the transition to armaments.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For 40 years, East Germany embraced a pacifist motto with Biblical origins: \u201cbeating swords into ploughshares\u201d. But last…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":208790,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[109145,72,292,61,60,9688],"class_list":["post-208789","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-afd-alternative-for-germany","tag-business","tag-germany","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-ukraine-crisis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208789","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=208789"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208789\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/208790"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=208789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=208789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=208789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}