german business model was based on cheap energy from russia, cheap subcontractors in eastern eu and steadily growing exports to china. all three are gone by now, but german politicians are still stuck in a world that doesn’t exist anymore.
so now after the whole country has been turned into a smelly coal-burning pit thanks to fake reports about nuclear and understating the coal plant emissions by 200x, there's no going back and germany is sooner or later going to level with eastern european countries.