The "autumn of reforms" that he has promised every time most unpopular German Chancellor Friedrich Merz It's already underway. "Our country faces important decisions this fall," he warned this week during the general debate on the 2025 budget in the Bundestag, the lower house of the German Parliament. The country, traditionally the economic engine of the European Union (EU), is struggling to get going after two consecutive years of recession. Gross domestic product (GDP) has decreased by 0.3% in the second quarter of this year compared to the first three months of the previous year, due in part to the turbulence in global trade. In August, the three million mark was surpassed, a figure unprecedented since February 2015.