Reuters reports the warning followed September state-election victories by parties on the political extremes.
Reuters reports that the head of Deutsche Bank, Germany’s largest bank, warned foreign investors may be driven away following September state-election victories by parties on the political extremes.
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Deutsche Bank CEO Christian Sewing has warned that Germany's recent state election results could make the country less attractive to foreign investors.
In an interview with the Bild newspaper, Sewing described the rise of parties at the political extremes as a significant risk. He argued that international investors may judge Germany as a whole rather than separate the actions of an individual state government from the national picture, Reuters reported.
The far-right Alternative for Germany party, or AfD, posted some of its strongest results in eastern Germany in September. It narrowly missed an absolute majority in the Saxony-Anhalt state parliament, then finished first in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania two weeks later.
Reuters noted that the AfD campaigns for tighter immigration restrictions and the return of asylum seekers. Germany's security services classify the party as extremist in some regions.
On the other side of the political spectrum, the Left Party won the Berlin city election after promising to tackle high housing costs by expropriating holdings owned by residential property companies.
Sewing said both the AfD's performance and the Left Party's Berlin platform were unfavorable to economic growth and investment. His warning was about how the election results may be perceived abroad, not evidence that foreign investors have already pulled money from Germany.
He urged Chancellor Friedrich Merz's government to continue reforms intended to revive the economy. Sewing presented those reforms as the government's practical response to the growth of parties on the far right and far left.
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