According to the German Central Horticultural Association Zentrallverband Gartenbau (ZVG), the federal elections of 23 February form a crucial opportunity to plot a course towards an entrepreneur-friendly future: “The next federal government will have the urgent task of giving the German economy perspective and thus putting it back on track towards growth.”
On 16 December 2024, more than three years after the three governing parties entered into a coalition agreement, the present progressive German government of SPD, Greens and FDP fell, leading to new national elections. Zentrallverband Gartenbau (ZVG) is not unhappy about this fall. According to the umbrella organisation, the so-called ‘traffic-light coalition’ has saddled horticulture with CO2 taxes, higher minimum wages and bureaucracy. A recent plan to have greenhouse horticulture pay industrial electricity rates would be yet another step in the wrong direction, ZVG wrote in its position paper on the elections.
