Scholz speaks in favour of aligning living conditions across country

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz cited the need to further align living conditions in the east and west of the country at the ceremony for German Unity Day, held in the northern city of Schwerin on Thursday.

"Wherever politics can create better opportunities and equal living conditions, this needs to happen," Scholz said, though he warned that "the idea that German unity would be 'complete' when the east is one day exactly the same as the west - when there is no such thing as a unified west - this idea is not helpful in a united Germany."

This only leads to bitterness and frustration because it is not achievable or desirable, he said. "It does not do justice to the enormous diversity within eastern Germany and western Germany," which he said was a particular strength of the country.