Overview
- Berlin's finance administration says the city faces an annual shortfall of about €5 billion from 2028 and reports €5.6 billion of overspending in the current budget, a gap the paper says will likely prompt a Stabilitätsrat evaluation in December 2026.
- SPD, Greens and the Left have opened initial coalition talks in Berlin while the antisemitism controversy pressures the SPD to demand clear sanctions for offenders and bankers warn that plans to 'vergesellschaften' large property portfolios could raise borrowing costs substantially.
- Volkswagen's management formally cancelled 10 of 13 company-level Haustarifverträge, a move that resets pay and work-time rules from January 2027 and raises the risk of hard bargaining and sector-wide strikes as metal and electrical tariff talks start in early October.
- Federal police and customs executed a large, long-running probe on Thursday using 2,250 officers across nine states, seizing cash, gold, luxury goods and other assets and arresting key suspects in an alleged international smuggling and labour‑exploitation ring in the cleaning industry.
- DB Infrago is standing by plans to cut twelve peak regional trains on the Augsburg–Munich corridor from 2028, prompting operator objections, a petition by commuters and calls for a ministerial round table this month with the BEG, Bundesnetzagentur and regional actors.