even under Merkel

But now the moronic populists under Merz are in control. Getting rid of him was basically the best thing Merkel ever did. And so they now happily fight against renewables, every other progress and even the population, while parroting far-right culture war bullshit as a diversion. All to make their billionaire and industry donors richer at the expense of workers, climate and future in general and with the "minor" side effect of pushing the far right, whose lies copy freely, to being the biggest party now. And that's probably not even seen as a problem by that corrupt pack as they can soon declare that a cooperation with these literal fascists is the only way to get a working government and obviously wanted by the voters.