Germany updates: 2025 was 3rd driest spring on record

Advocacy groups have responded with shock and criticism to reports that the new German government is not planning on keeping the position of the commissioner for combating discrimination against Sinti and Roma people filled after the current commissioner steps down.

The Central Council of German Roma and Sinti expressed particular criticism over the fact that Chancellor Friedrich Merz's government had not contacted them about such a move.

"I can't imagine that the German government would take such a step without talking it over with the Central Council first," council head Romani Rose said to Germany's Catholic news agency KNA on Friday. "And that hasn't happened."

Rose said he had written to Merz and Vice-Chancellor Lars Klingbeil regarding the reports requesting clarification.

The council has said that attacks and hostilities against Roma and Sinti in Germany have doubled in recent years.

Mehmet Daimagüler was appointed as the first commissioner for combating discrimination against Sinti and Roma in 2022. He announced before the election in February that he was planning on stepping down.

However, the German daily Die Tageszeitung reported on Thursday that the government was not planning on replacing him in the role, citing a spokesperson from the Family Ministry. Daimagüler responded to the report, calling it a "slap in the face."

"Germany's historic responsibility for Roma and Sinti people is once more clearly being suppressed," Berlin's contact person for discrimination against Roma and Sinti, Alina Voinea, told Germany's Evangelical news agency epd.

Germany, under the Nazi regime, murdered over 250,000 Roma and Sinti people during the Holocaust.

A district court in the southern Bavarian city of Augsburg has sentenced a 50-year-old German man to a 20-month suspended sentence for attempting to blackmail a priest.

According to the indictment, the perpetrator sent photos he downloaded from a site hosting gay content, including a naked photo of the priest, to the victim in 2022, demanding €50,000 ($56,600).

He threatened to share the photos with television broadcasters and publish them in the priest's parish if he didn't send the money.

The priest did not respond and instead contacted the police.

The defendant was arrested and admitted to all charges. His one-year and eight-month sentence was suspended on probation, but he must still pay €800. The verdict is not yet final.

Inflation in Germany remained at the low level of 2.1% in May, according to an announcement from the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) on Friday.

It was the same inflation rate as the previous month, which itself was the lowest point since October.

There had been fears that the threat of a trade war with the US could have knock-on effects on the German economy, but cheap energy has kept prices down.

Those living in Germany will have likely already noticed the exceptionally dry spring that is now giving way to summer in Germany. However, according to the German Weather Service (DWD), this spring has been the third-driest on record.

Since 1881, only two other years have had less rain between the beginning of March and the end of May — 1893 and 2011.

The DWD said that only 96 liters of rain fell per square meter this year. That's just half the average amount of 186 liters that fell between 1961 and 2020. 

The agency has called it an extreme drought.

It also pointed out the substantial differences in rainfall between northeastern Germany, where just 40 liters were recorded, and Germany's southern Alpine region where 300 liters were recorded.

This reversal of fortunes — the north is usually much rainier than the south — was reflected in Europe as a whole where, amid droughts in the north of the continent, southern Europe experienced heavy rainfall and even flooding.

German lawmakers from the environmentalist Greens and the center-left Social Democrats (SPD) have spoken out in favor of a ban on smoking in public spaces.

The interest in such a move comes a day after a similar ban was announced in France. The ban, which is set to come into force in July, would prohibit smoking on beaches, in parks, in front of schools and at other similar public spaces.

"The recently introduced public smoking ban in France is a brave step that sets a clear signal for health and child protection and should  also serve as an example for Germany," the SPD's deputy parliamentary leader Dagmar Schmidt told the Rheinischen Post.

The SPD is currently part of Germany's governing coalition under Chancellor Friedrich Merz, along with the conservative Christian Democratic Union and its Bavarian sister party the Christian Social Union. 

The Greens' Janosch Dahmen, speaking to the same paper, said: "A smoking ban in public spaces, as is planned in France, is correct — also for Germany."

The Greens are currently in the opposition in Germany's parliament, or Bundestag. 

The European Space Agency (ESA) is celebrating its 50th anniversary on Friday. To mark the occasion, the German Minister for Research, Technology and Space Dorothee Bär stressed the increased importance of space travel for Germany.

"We must increase our German share in the ESA," the Christian Social Union (CSU) minister told public broadcaster ZDF on Friday.

Germany is already the largest contributor to the ESA program, controlling a 21% share. Increasing this would require a major investment.

"Europe needs to make itself independent," Bär continued. "We need to be aware of what it means to always be reliant on other actors."

Before the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the ESA used Russian rockets to send its satellites into space. Since then it has relied on US company SpaceX. However, SpaceX owner Elon Musk has threatened to limit Ukraine's Starlink access for which neither Ukraine nor the Europeans have a suitable replacement.

Bär also spoke to French news agency AFP about the benefits of increased German investment in space.

"Faced with the geopolitical situation and our export-oriented industry, the growth perspectives ... of space travel are truly important," she said, pointing to the positive effects that new technologies can have on the economy and jobs.

She also highlighted the role of the ESA's science program.

"Without the ESA we would have less data about climate change, less security for stock exchange trading and for the energy network," the minister told AFP.

The German car giant Volkswagen (VW) has said that it will invest more in the US after carrying out its own negotiations with the US government.

"I was in Washington myself and since then we have been in a regular exchange," VW CEO Oliver Blume told the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung.

"The Volkswagen Group wants to invest further in the USA," he added.

The reports come amid tariff threats made by US President Donald Trump against trade partners and major companies. Foreign car manufacturers have been a particular target.

VW employs more than 20,000 people directly and another 55,000 people indirectly in the US.

Blume said he had been in contact with the US Department of Commerce, but he also hinted that Trump was involved in the negotiations to some extent.

"So far we've experienced completely fair, constructive dialogue," Blume said of his talks with the Trump administration.

Reuters reported that two other major German car makers, BMW and Mercedes-Benz, were also in talks with the Department of Commerce in an effort to reduce US import tariffs against them.

They are hoping to reach an agreement with the White House by June.

The German central bank, the Bundesbank, has said it expects inflation to stay on target at around 2%.

In April, the annual inflation rate fell to 2.1%, the lowest rate since October. This was in large part due to cheap energy in comparison to the year before.

Since oil prices have remained low, no major change is expected for May's annual inflation rate.

The Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) is expected to publish its initial date on the May inflation rate at 2 p.m. Berlin time (1200 GMT).

As Germany's baby boomer generation retires and more people prefer part-time work, economists are in favor of abolishing a public holiday or two.

This has sparked heated debate.

A new report from the World Weather Attribution, the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre, and Climate Central has concluded from its analysis of the 12-month period from May 1, 2024 to May 1, 2025, that almost half of the world's population experienced an extra 30 days of extreme heat, at least, as a result of human-induced climate change.

The report found that Germany experienced 50 days of extreme heat — defined as days hotter than 90% of temperatures observed locally over the 1990-2020 period — in the past year. Of those, the report said that 24 would not have happened were it not for climate change.

The report pointed out that 2024 was the hottest year on record, with January 2025 the hottest January on record.

"This is not a surprise or an accident — the causes are well known and the impacts are devastating," the authors wrote in the report.

"The continued burning of coal, oil, and gas has released and accumulated enough greenhouse gases to warm the planet by 1.3°C over a 5-year average) — and by more than 1.5°C in 2024 alone — compared to pre-industrial times."

Moin, thank you for joining us today as we bring you the latest news and outlooks from Germany.

Coming up, we are expecting positive news on the German inflation rate which the German central bank, the Bundesbank, has predicted will fluctuate around the 2% mark in the next few months.

A climate protest is also planned to take place in Berlin. Following the dissolution of the Letzte Generation ("last generation") protest group, a new climate activist movement — the Neue Generation ("new generation") — is kicking off a week of protest in the German capital.

Follow along for all this and more.