BERLIN — Chancellor Friedrich Merz has picked a risky political fight with Germany’s workforce of some 46 million people.

His message, in short: Don’t be so lazy.

Germans don’t work enough hours and take too many sick days, hampering economic growth, Merz has argued in recent weeks.

It’s not the most expedient political message in a pivotal year of regional elections, even in a country whose traditional self-image extols diligence and hard work as moral imperatives.

Merz’s plea for people to work harder comes as he struggles to revive Germany’s long-stagnant economy and pushes market-oriented policies to boost competitiveness — partly by addressing skilled labor shortages — at home and across the EU. But it also comes at a politically sensitive moment ahead of a series of state elections that are seen as key tests of the national mood, with his own conservative party struggling to ward off a rising far right.

This has not stopped the chancellor from taking an almost chastising tone with Germans for not working more and for not working harder.

“The overall productivity of our national economy is not high enough,” Merz said during a recent speech to industry groups in eastern Germany, flagging part-time work as a problem. “To put it even more bluntly: Work-life balance and a four-day week will not be enough to maintain our country’s current level of prosperity in the future, which is why we need to work harder.”

During a recent campaign stop in the southwestern state of Baden-Württemberg, where conservatives are clinging to a single-digit lead in polls ahead of a March 8 election, Merz doubled down, decrying the number of sick days working Germans take on average — nearly three weeks per year, he said, well above the EU average.

“Is that really right? Is that really necessary?” Merz said with a clenched fist. “Can we talk about how we can create better incentives to encourage people to work rather than taking sick leave when they are ill?” He added, “In this Federal Republic of Germany, we must achieve a higher economic performance together than we are currently achieving.”

‘Part-time lifestyle’

Germans rank near the bottom of the EU — third to last — in terms of average weekly hours worked, according to recent figures compiled by the country’s statistics agency.

A big part of the reason is that the share of German workers choosing part-time employment is at a record high. Merz’s conservatives recently proposed a measure to boost overall work hours by ending the “legal entitlement” to part-time work unless an employee has a special reason, such as childcare obligations or continuing education.

The proposal — titled “No legal right to a part-time lifestyle”— angered many Germans for what they perceived as its admonishing tenor. Many German women, who work part-time far more frequently than men, felt particularly targeted.

“This is not a lifestyle choice I have made,” said one woman who identified herself as a part-time worker from Rhineland-Palatinate — a western German state that will hold an election March 22 — in an interview for German public television, explaining that she provides care for her son and mother.

Merz’s statements on part-time work and sick days were also roundly mocked on social media, with Germans turning the phrase “part-time lifestyle” into a variety of widely shared memes.

“I can still work!” said the voiceover in one online video post depicting a scene from the 1975 comedy film “Monty Python and the Holy Grail,” in which a knight who has just lost his limbs in battle declares he still wants to fight — or in this case, work. “Go ahead, send me an email!” the voiceover continues. “Give me something to print!”

The political damage to Merz and his conservatives appears substantial. Two-thirds of Germans oppose the proposal of his Christian Democratic Union (CDU) to make it harder to work part-time, according to Germany’s benchmark ARD-DeutschlandTrend survey.

More consequentially for Merz, his conservatives are losing points on their core issue: the economy. Only 31 percent of Germans surveyed said they trust the chancellor’s conservatives to improve the economy. That still beats other parties, but is 6 percentage points less than last year — tying the conservatives’ lowest economy rating on record.

So it came as no surprise, earlier this month, when Merz’s party struck the phrase “part-time lifestyle” from the proposal on increasing work hours to be considered at a CDU party conference in late February.

Greece as a model?

Topping the list of the most hours worked in the EU is Greece, a country whose people many German conservatives scorned as lazy during the European debt crisis over a decade ago. Merz now holds up Greece as something of a model, although Germany’s labor productivity remains far higher.

During a visit by conservative Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis to Berlin last year, Merz praised Athens for deregulating its labor market, enabling a six-day workweek. “I recommend that everyone in Germany who thinks it is terrible and unreasonable to work 40 hours a week … take a look at Greece,” Merz said alongside Mitsotakis. “We can certainly learn something from Greece in this regard.”

But given fierce German resistance to such proposals — and the fact Merz governs in coalition with the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD), which is protective of current labor-market regulations — the chancellor has few immediate remedies for Germany’s chronic skilled labor shortage and stagnating productivity. 

In fact, Merz’s more immediate problem may not be a work-avoiding electorate but rather the growing dearth of jobs in the industrial sector that long propelled the country’s export-oriented economy. Germany’s unemployment rate recently surpassed the 3 million mark to hit a 12-year high.

“We’ve already decided on many measures to help the economy,” Merz said on a post on X after the figures emerged. “But it is not enough.”

Nette Nöstlinger contributed to this report.