mr. scholz: we will do extra activities, this is true. and we are able to do so. in europe we are the first to fight against pandemic with fiscal means. last year we developed the first of very strong were probably programs and managed activity possible that this is answering together in this crisis. the effect on the german economy 's office the having a very good situation of the labor market and it is much better than anyone expected. we have a very good situation in the economy. if you compare the development of the german economy to other countries in the world you see we are between the bests fighting get the economic consequences of crisis. matt: can i push harder to get a figure here in terms of additional spending that's necessary. 50 billion euros in additional spending, is it somewhere in that ballpark? mr. scholz: your colleagues from germany asked the same question to me and i always gave them the same answer, you will see. jonathan: let me follow-up on the election coming up later this year, you are running against chancellor merkel's party, you have

but germany, including the vice chancellor, mr scholz, are part of the european union.ponsibility on the shoulders of the commission under mrs von der leyen. all the member states of the european union are responsible for these delays, given the bureaucratic approach some member states set when it came to translate into reality the decisions which had been taken on the european level. so i don't think it's wise to put all the responsibility on the shoulders of mrs von der leyen. the structural issues are important, aren't they? because everybody needs to learn lessons for the future. the us respected economist, nobel—prize—winning economist paul krugman, he analysed what's happened in europe and he said the failures were about bureaucratic and intellectual rigidity. the decision was made to go for collective eu procurement, but then the officials involved, he said, were too concerned with penny—pinching to ensure that europe was not ripped off. they were too concerned with legal liability issues, and they were not concerned enough about the urgency of saving lives. woul