We Hate Everything Smaller: How Shrinkflation Is Shaping Society

“Where does the distrust come from?” Die Zeit has reportedly placed that question on its front page for what feels like the fifth or seventh time. The answer is obvious to the author: the focus is the “anger” of eastern Germans.

A civic rumble is growing louder, reaching the edge of frenzy. Sunday’s election in Saxony-Anhalt could put the AfD’s leading candidate in the fortunate position of becoming minister-president of the “state of early risers,” for the first time in any German state. Federal representatives, the article suggests, would then have to reset their alarm clocks as well.

The piece presents this anger as part of a broader pattern visible in Germany and Austria. In the name of normality, it argues, outrage is being stirred mainly from the political right. Even a native of Sauerland, it adds, can look genuinely sour, as illustrated by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz of the CDU campaigning through the “new state” of Saxony-Anhalt.

Austria, meanwhile, is portrayed as already frustrated with the sleepiness of its political leadership. The result is a pointed contrast between public agitation and leaders accused of moving too slowly, with “shrinkflation” serving as the article’s wider metaphor for a society that feels everything is being reduced.