Germany

Oliver Blume, the 58-year-old chief executive of Volkswagen Group, has lived and breathed the mighty German car industry for three decades.

After training as an engineer, he began his career in the body shop of Audi, honing his skills at a time when German cars were still the first and last word in automotive excellence.

He surely couldn’t have imagined, or wanted, his stellar VW trajectory to end up like it did last week.

Deutsche Bahn, Germany’s state-owned railway operator, appears to be facing a growing sabotage problem.

According to a leaked internal report, the company recorded around 2,200 cases of sabotage targeting railway infrastructure during the first six months of 2026, a 7% increase compared with the same period last year.

The incidents include arson, vandalism, and theft that causes significant damage to railway infrastructure and disrupts train services, costing taxpayers increasing amounts to repair each year.

In Germany, the trains have stopped running on time, bridges have been shut over safety fears, and the country’s largest carmaker, Volkswagen, is cutting a sixth of its workforce. The government’s response amounts to a shrug, dressed up as reform. It seems like Germany is on a bad streak – and the AfD looks set to reap the rewards.

Take the railways, the infamous Deutsche Bahn. A few weeks ago, they ground to a total halt. Every train in the country stood still, because the radio system that lets drivers talk to signal boxes – a system that appears to date, in spirit if not in silicon, from the Kaiserreich – simply stopped working. For several hours, nothing moved on the tracks of Europe’s largest economy.