Employer president sees SPD warming to business ahead of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern vote

A new tone toward business

Lars Schwarz, president of the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern employers' association, praised a shift in the state SPD's election program for the September 20 Landtag vote. He told the German Press Agency the program, adopted at a party congress in Wismar last weekend, marked a marked improvement from the 2021 version in its treatment of entrepreneurs.

Back then, the entrepreneur was mainly seen as someone to be controlled and regulated. Now the entrepreneur is more of a partner, part of the solution together with the employees.

He welcomed the commitment to work closely with social partners to find solutions.

Energy costs and red tape

Schwarz said the SPD's willingness to push for lower energy costs, for example by allowing cheap locally generated green electricity to be passed directly to local consumers, was positive. However, he noted that such a decision cannot be made by a state government.

That is a matter for the Federal Network Agency.

He described the current inability to deliver local green power directly as an obstacle.

Criticism of procurement law

The employers' group remains critical of the state's collective bargaining compliance and public procurement law. Schwarz argued that it implies that entrepreneurs not organized in employer associations are second-class employers. In his view, this conflicts with the Basic Law.

The freedom to join or not join an employer association or a trade union is violated here.

He added that companies taking on public contracts in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern must prove they pay tariffs, a costly requirement that runs counter to efforts to cut bureaucracy. As a result, many smaller firms avoid bidding for public contracts. "This does not lead to more competition and ultimately does not make things cheaper for the public sector," he said.

Election landscape

The SPD is currently the strongest force in the Schwerin state parliament and aims to remain so after the September 20 election. But polls place it at 27 percent, well behind the AfD, which recently received 36 percent support in one survey.

The election will determine the composition of the state parliament in the northeastern region, where the SPD has historically been strong.