i think they're just losing market share... germany has been getting screwed for years now, starting way before the energy issues
aside from the possible instances of relief (eg random years of a slight recovery within a long term trend of decline), this economic shift feels almost unavoidable
unless the west goes to war or some shit
supposedly, it's a short-term measure that is going to be followed by social policies
to be fair, it would be impossible to effectively apply any kind of social policy in their previous situation. if it was a left-wing government, i would support the crackdown, lumpens can be dangerous as fuck. the problem with it coming from the right is that i don't trust them to do the necessary social policies, and it's gonna end up the same it was, just with different people
also, what worries me is other latin american leaders wanting to do the same. el salvador's situation was uniquely bad, few places in the continent have anything remotely similar. for instance, it would be ridiculous to defend that kind of crackdown in brazil