Fact check: Germany's Merz misstates record in ARD interview
Migration, debt and electric vehicles: Chancellor Friedrich Merz made several misleading claims in his ARD summer interview. DW Fact check reviewed them live.
In a recent ARD interview, Chancellor Friedrich Merz made several misleading claims during Germany's annual tradition. Merz claimed that his government had reduced migration numbers by over 60% in just over a year, which is misleading. The Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) reported that asylum applications in the first half of 2026 fell by 35.4% compared to the same period last year.
Merz also stated that Germany has the best credit rating among European nations, but debt-to-GDP ratio puts Germany in the middle of the eurozone, with 58% of the debt compared to the previous year. Lastly, Merz claimed that battery electric vehicles don't reduce CO2 emissions as much as often portrayed, citing a new paper from the Technical University of Munich, but this paper included outdated electricity mixes and older analyses, contradicting the more recent ICCT analysis which shows electric vehicles are indeed better for the environment.
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