The German economy shrank for the second straight year in 2024 as worried consumers held back on spending and Chinese competition ate into the country’s traditional exports of cars and industrial machinery.

Friedrich Merz, the chancellor candidate for the conservative Christian Democratic Union acknowledged the need for a “major effort” to revive the economy as his party pledges to return German growth to 2 percent over the next five years through changes to the welfare and tax systems.

German police are investigating an election campaign flyer by a far-right party that looks like a plane ticket and calls for the deportation of “illegal immigrants.”

The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party sent "deportation tickets" for "illegal immigrants" to mailboxes around the city of Karlsruhe, a local AfD official confirmed to dpa on Tuesday. Police in the western city have launched an investigation into the campaign stunt on suspicion of incitement to hatred.