Unofficial translation from the original German ZDFheute article:

‘Is Reiche scrapping a law through the back door?’, 19 August 2026

Through personnel policies and interference in the work of the relevant supervisory authority, Katherina Reiche (CDU) and her Ministry for Economic Affairs appear to be deliberately undermining an unwelcome law, bypassing the Bundestag. This is revealed by months of investigation by ZDF frontal. The issue concerns the Supply Chain Act, which remains in force in Germany, and the authority responsible for monitoring whether companies are complying with the law...

Responsibility for monitoring and imposing potential sanctions lies with a department within the Federal Office for Economic Affairs and Export Control (BAFA), based in Borna, south of Leipzig.

There are 101 posts allocated to the supply chain department; 83 are filled, but only 38 of these are dedicated to supply chain monitoring. The Ministry of Economic Affairs has confirmed these figures following repeated enquiries from ZDF frontal...