At 9.48 clock Angela Merkel works this morning the black leather folder with the engraved federal eagle back to. But she is not finished yet at the lectern. Merkel is generally not yet ready with politics - and she wants to tell the members of the Bundestag yet again, especially the Social Democratic. So Merkel turns slightly to the left, towards the SPD faction, and says, "That's why I think we should continue working for the legislature, my personal opinion, I'm in it."
Even if it is not clear whether Merkel's comments on the way to the party presidency really help him - Vice Chancellor and Finance Minister Olaf Scholz welcomes his boss very cheerfully, as the CDU politician seconds later returns to their place on the government bench.
In the budget debate on "Section 04: Federal Chancellor and Federal Chancellery", as the agenda item in official Bundestag German is called, there were already significantly less entertaining performances by Merkel in the past one and a half decades than on this gloomy November day. But rarely was so much at stake for them when the deputies met for the budget week in the Bundestag. In a few days, on Saturday evening at 18.30, it is clear whether the majority of the SPD members have decided for Olaf Scholz and Klara Geywitz as the new chairman and thus for the continuation of the coalition - or for the Groko-skeptical duo Norbert Walter- Borjans and Saskia Esken.
Should Walter-Borjans / Esken win and the SPD leave the GroKo, this could have been Merkel's last appearance for section 04, whereupon one or the other speakers of the opposition relish this morning with relish.
Then you would remember him anyway. Merkel, in the bright red blazer, as she first makes a long-winded and quite critical record of 70 years Nato. The Chancellor does not care that the leader of the parliamentary group, Alexander Gauland, was the first speaker who did not say a word about the military alliance; she made this a principle in the parliamentary debate: Whatever you take turns Gauland (this time especially the "fatal" German Sonderweg "with the double exit from nuclear power and coal) or his co-boss Alice Weidel more or less hateful counter - Merkel ignores it and begins with her prepared manuscript.
"A good opportunity to look back," says Merkel for the Nato birthday. But also a good reason to address two current issues: First, the intra-coalitional controversy over the so-called two-percent target of the Federal Government. "One can rely on that," Merkel said, looking at the efforts of Defense Minister and CDU leader Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer to increase German military spending towards this share of gross domestic product, until the beginning of the 2030s, according to Merkel, one should go so far his.
Kay Nietfeld / DPA
Secondly, the Chancellor once again indirectly appeals to French President Emmanuel Macron, who most recently described NATO as "brain dead", again emphasizing the value of the military alliance. "The preservation of NATO is in our own interest," says Merkel, "Europe can not defend itself alone".
On the other hand, Europe must stand together in the conflict between the US and Iran, the Chancellor believes, in order to save the nuclear deal - and also against China. It is "devastating" if everyone in Europe makes its own China policy, she also says with regard to the issue of Huawei. Rather, one should for example define common standards in 5G network expansion.
20 minutes are already over there, a typical Merkel speech until then. The big world, the big lines - but then the Chancellor is suddenly on the subject, which, on the other hand, looks small: the Grand Coalition. "We have done a lot in the past 20 months," she says.
Merkel praises the Scholz household effusively
Whether it is good if as many SPD members hear and see this sentence? At any rate, Olaf Scholz sees it just like Merkel does. And that the Chancellor praises in the coming minutes in the highest tones, as the Federal Government has again submitted a budget without new debts (the seventh in a row), especially. Finally, this budget has been presented by Finance Minister Scholz.
It is a € 362 billion budget with record investment, which from the point of view of the Greens (more for the climate) and the Left Party (more for the social) still does not include enough investment, while the FDP wants different priorities (for example less promotion of electric mobility ). The AfD finds just about everything wrong with this budget, in particular the desired climate policy turnaround.
If it were up to Gauland and his group, Germany would simply go on as before - including the automotive industry. While Merkel tries to explain why politics must also push ahead with the restructuring of this industry, AfD MPs are calling for ever louder and more furious interventions without President Wolfgang Schäuble (CDU) intervening. At some point it is sufficient Merkel: It reminds you of Kaiser Wilhelm II, says the Chancellor, who was sure in the face of the first cars that they would not replace the horse.
Merkel is now quite in motion, so they have rarely experienced at this lectern.
The "We-Make-The-Chancellor" is back
Suddenly even the We-create-the-chancellor from the refugee summer 2015 is back. "We can do that if we bring the cohesion of the country forward," says Merkel. The split between city and country is a huge problem, as one would have seen in the farmers' protest on Tuesday in Berlin, the "frictions in our society" by Internet and social media get Merkel.
But one thing is also clear, and as the Chancellor is really loud: of course, there is still freedom of expression in Germany. But who expresses his opinion, "he has to live with the fact that there is contradiction", there is "no freedom of expression for free". Similarly, Merkel had recently expressed in a SPIEGEL interview. But there are limits, "and they begin where the hate is being rushed, where hatred is being spread, starting where the dignity of others is violated, and we will and must oppose it in this house."
The last sentences are hardly understood because of the loud applause from all political groups - with the exception of the AFD members. Then she folds her folder. If that had been Merkel's last budget speech, it would have been a fitting finale anyway.
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