English transcript

When we look at Europe right now, and having spent time in Europe, I was shocked to see the

number of BYDs on the road and the excitement with which people in those countries are using

their Chinese EVs. How has Europe managed this issue in terms of their own manufacturing and

their own auto sectors? Because they seem to have found a balance, or they seem to be

appearing to have found a balance. I don't think they've found a balance at all, I'm afraid. I

was Europe managed this badly and inadequately so far. Their duties and their quotas are not

going to be strong enough and their industrial bases are going to be hollowed out. And if you

look at the economic malaise that has gripped Germany, there's empirical examples of 10,000

manufacturing jobs lost a month over the last year. It is going to be devastating to Europe

and they need a new strategy. That was as much of a smack down to the liberal narrative on the EVs

and China as I think I've ever heard. Because what they're trying to say, the liberals, is

they're saying, well, you know, you're saying we need to align with other countries and blah, blah,

blah, blah, blah. And look, we're lying with Europe and everything's going well for them.

And Kovrig just fires right back. It is not going well for them. It is going very badly. And Michael

Kovrig is not making this up. Check it out. So ladies and gentlemen, this is a graph of all of

the different employment growth by industry in Germany. Okay, so what you can see is that

manufacturing is going down like nobody's business. It is falling like crazy and it has been falling

since the middle of 2023. This is after COVID, right? This is COVID's done. And it is falling

to almost the level of COVID since China has actually come in with their EVs. This is what

Michael Kovrig is specifically talking about. German industry lost more than 120,000 jobs last

year. The automotive sector was hit the hardest with 50,000 job losses, while the chemical and

pharmaceutical industry saw a smaller reduction losing 2000 positions. Jan Brueghelker of EY

Ernst & Young described the situation as a quote unquote, deep crisis for German industry.

Since 2023, revenues have declined by nearly 5% and 2025 fourth quarter marked the 10th

consecutive quarter of economic contraction. EY predicts that industrial employment in Germany

will continue to shrink in 2026 due to weak demand and strong competition, particularly from China.