Merz and Reiche represent a symbiotic network between politics and business that displaces professional expertise in favor of personal connections. | External consultants are increasingly replacing government expertise and creating an opaque parallel administration. | The German government paid billions for consulting services whose results were often favorable rather than independent. | This practice undermines democratic accountability because mistakes are externalized and profits are internalized. | The revolving door principle leads to regulatory capture, in which regulation is shifted in favor of established corporations. | Energy strategies are delayed and mismanaged, resulting in more expensive fossil fuel investments and higher costs. | The Federal Court of Auditors warns of a loss of integrity and a lack of parliamentary oversight of consulting contracts. | In the long term, government competence erodes because ministries lose specialized knowledge and can no longer independently evaluate expert opinions. | Solutions such as longer cooling-off periods, expansion of government expertise, and an effective lobby register are necessary but are being politically blocked. | For the economy, this pattern represents a systemic danger: misallocation of resources, concentration of power, and loss of public capacity to act. [...]

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