‘Is Germany going to merge?’

Germany’s 16 Lander districts could be merged to create 9 new regions after the September 22 national elections, writes Gazeta Wyborcza citing German media reports, adding that Germany - like the EU itself - has a regional wealth gap.

Since the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers in 2008, the Bavarian economy in the south has grown by 6 per cent and unemployment hovers at 3.8 per cent, around half of that in the rest of the country. Meanwhile the north is debt-stricken and must rely on bailouts from the south. GW continues that –

changes are necessary as the gap between the German north and the south becomes wider […] The north is threatened with poverty and depopulation as its inhabitants, particularly the young and dynamic, leave their indebted regions in search of better jobs in the south […]

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One solution to the “financial misery of the north” is to merge poorer and richer regions thus reducing their number. According to one of the scenarios, Hamburg could merge with Schleswig-Holstein and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.