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Winfried Kretschmann with a diagram on the expansion of wind power
Photo: Marijan Murat / dpa
It looks like a sketch: a young man with dark brown hair and square glasses in the 80s in a light brown jacket stands in front of a wall of the same color and ponders the “two-stage regulation” of the “toilet flush”.
This is how the video of a new energy saving campaign by the state government of Baden-Württemberg begins.
The camera zooms out and pans to the left in slow motion, there stands Prime Minister Winfried Kretschmann and comments on the picture of his younger self: "Many laughed back then," he says, and in view of the Loriot-like nature of the scene one would like to say to him: Today too.
Kretschmann's video is the prelude to the new "Cleverländ" campaign of the state of Baden-Württemberg, costs according to media reports: between 200,000 and 300,000 euros.
Videos, tips on the Internet and a six-week information tour with local energy consultants and craftsmen are intended to encourage people to use less electricity, water and gas.
The »energy savings book« is included.
"Even today, I'm concerned with saving, more precisely with saving energy," says Kretschmann in the opening video.
Because of the war in the Ukraine, everyone now has to lend a hand, "clever ideas are needed, and it's not for nothing that we're the country of inventors and tinkerers."
Many »clever ideas« come from Baden-Württemberg.
What Kretschmann means, he demonstrates below: "Tip #01" is to turn off the heating at night.
"Night setback," says Kretschmann, "everyone can set their own heating."
Then, in his white shirt and black suit, he kneels down next to a heater and turns sharply to the right.
He presents a few figures on the savings potential and summarizes: "So you see, you don't have to be clever to save energy - but it is clever to save energy."
However, many citizens do not seem at all happy with the Prime Minister's tips: "Big tips, turn the heating down at night ... wow!
So far, I've always had the heating on at night, windows wide open and of course the same during the day," one user commented ironically on the video on YouTube.
"The energy to create this video should have been saved," writes another.
A third person asks: »How stupid do they think we are?
It's unbelievable …« At a time when some people don't know how to get through the month financially due to the high energy costs, such tips seem like a slap in the face for some.
State Ministry rejects criticism
In the State Ministry, whose press office is responsible for the "Cleverland" campaign, one cannot understand the critical comments.
»The videos and the roadshow are primarily an offer.
We don't want to dictate anything to anyone.
But maybe there's a little trick here and there to save energy that you haven't figured out yet," a spokeswoman told SPIEGEL.
In the planned roadshow in particular, people could get information individually from energy consultants or craftsmen about what else could be done energetically.
According to the website, trade associations, individual companies and the Baden-Württemberg consumer advice center are also represented.
"It's more about insulating the single-family house, there's a lot of potential there," says the spokeswoman.
"If those who aren't hit hardest conserve energy, they help everyone."
It's not the first time that the prime minister's energy-saving statements have backfired: When asked about his own energy-saving behavior, Kretschmann told the "Südwest Presse" in August that you don't have to shower all the time.
"The washcloth is also a useful invention," said Kretschmann.
Many took this as advice, and Kretschmann received malicious comments online.
The advertising campaign »The Länd« had already been criticized beforehand: it cost Baden-Württemberg 21 million euros, and advertisers worked for three years on the idea of presenting Baden-Württemberg as an attractive business location and thus attracting skilled workers.
At the beginning of September, Kretschmann's party colleague, Baden-Württemberg Finance Minister Danyal Bayaz, was convinced in SPIEGEL: "The population doesn't need any energy-saving tips from us." One could have guessed the current mockery of the new expensive campaign with simple tips from the prime minister in the state ministry .
The spokeswoman, on the other hand, emphasizes that the campaign should not be a solution for everyone, but a supplementary offer for political measures such as the relief packages.
Kretschmann considers the tip from the video to turn down the heating at night “a simple measure that is effective.
That's why he finds the example compelling."