Fact Check: German Leader Made Misleading Claims in TV Interview

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz sat down for a live TV interview with public broadcaster ARD on a Sunday evening this summer. Merz is Germany's top leader, similar to a prime minister. During the interview, he talked about immigration, the country's debt, and electric cars. Fact-checkers from DW and the ARD network watched the interview as it happened and checked his claims. They found that several of his statements were misleading or left out important details.

One of the biggest claims Merz made was about immigration. He said his government had cut the number of asylum-seekers by 'over 60%' in just over a year. Asylum-seekers are people who travel to another country and ask to stay because it is unsafe for them at home. Fact-checkers found this number was an overstatement. According to Germany's Federal Office for Migration and Refugees, first-time asylum applications actually fell by about 35% in the first half of 2026 compared to the year before.

To get close to 60%, Merz appeared to be cherry-picking just one month — August 2025 — and comparing it to the same month the year before. That single-month drop was about 58%, but looking at a longer stretch of time tells a different story. From January through August 2025, the drop was only about 51%. Fact-checkers also pointed out that asylum numbers were already falling before Merz even took office in May 2025, partly because the Syrian ruler Bashar Assad had fallen from power in December 2024.

Merz also made claims about Germany's debt. He said Germany was 'one of the least indebted countries in Europe' and had the best credit rating of any European nation. A credit rating is like a grade that tells investors how trustworthy a country is when it comes to paying back money it borrows. Fact-checkers said this was also misleading. On one key measure — how a country's total debt compares to its yearly economic output — Germany is actually in the middle of the pack in Europe, not near the top.

On another debt measure, Germany is just barely meeting the rules set by eurozone countries. The eurozone is the group of European nations that share the euro as their currency. The rules say a country's deficit — the gap between what it spends and what it earns — should be below 3% of its economy. Germany's deficit is at 2.7%, which passes, but it is one of the closest to breaking the rule. Merz is right that Germany has the highest possible credit rating from S&P, but several other countries share that top grade too.

The third big topic was electric cars. Merz suggested that the environmental benefits of electric vehicles are not as clear as people think, saying the 'CO2 balance of electric mobility isn't as rosy as it's often portrayed.' CO2 is a gas that traps heat in the atmosphere and contributes to climate change. Fact-checkers pushed back strongly on this claim. The International Council on Clean Transportation found that electric cars produce about 73% less CO2 than gas-powered cars over their lifetime.

It is true that making an electric car — especially its battery — releases more pollution than making a gas-powered car. But that extra pollution is usually offset, or made up for, after just one or two years of driving the electric car. Merz appeared to be referencing a recent paper that averaged 19 older studies and found a smaller benefit of 41%. Fact-checkers noted that the older studies used outdated information, and that scientists broadly agree electric vehicles are better for the environment than traditional gas-powered ones.