On 21 October 1993, Chancellor Helmut Kohl gave a government statement in the Bundestag on securing Germany’s future as a business location. He said: Meine Damen und Herren, wir können die Zukunft nicht dadurch sichern, daß wir unser Land als einen kollektiven Freizeitpark organisieren. Ladies and gentlemen, we cannot secure the future by organizing our country as a collective leisure park.
In May 2025, shortly before his first government statement, Chancellor Friedrich Merz said: Wir müssen in diesem Land wieder mehr und vor allem effizienter arbeiten. Mit Vier-Tage-Woche und Work-Life-Balance werden wir den Wohlstand dieses Landes nicht erhalten können. We must work more again in this country, and above all more efficiently. With a four-day week and work-life balance, we will not be able to keep this country’s prosperity. Criticism came from other parties and from within his own. In February 2026, the CDU’s business wing brought a motion to the party congress with the title Kein Rechtsanspruch auf Lifestyle-Teilzeit, no legal right to lifestyle part-time. After protests, the term was dropped from the motion.