BDI warns on ‘economic patriotism’

In a FT interview Jürgen Thumann, the chairman of the BDI, the representative organisation for German industy, said that 'economic patriotism' championed by Nicolas Sarkozy, the French President, was among the factors fuelling a protectionist zeitgeist in Europe. He warned the German government not to follow France’s lead in raising the state’s influence on the economy in response to the challenges of globalisation.