The two popes and the two chancellors have one thing in common: beyond all public statements, they are opponents. Correspondingly, Angela Merkel eyed her Viennese guest Sebastian Kurz. A comment by Merkur editor-in-chief Georg Anastasiadis.
Visitors from Austria have always received mixed feelings in Berlin. Regardless of whether at the time in the migration dispute or today in the quarrel over the new financial transaction tax for stock savers: the two chancellors are almost never in agreement. Angela Merkel is the "Miss World" courted in Davos and New York - but Sebastian Kurz is closer to the people. And the one of the two who is still celebrating electoral successes with his People's Party.
The young Catholic from little Austria, although like Christian Democrat Merkel, embodies in almost every respect the counter-proposal to the Prussian Protestant in the mighty Berlin Chancellery, which is becoming increasingly withdrawn from office: the very German rhetoric of world rescue Merkel and its entourage is foreign to him; he would never think of giving Mario Draghi the highest state honor, of all things. And while Berlin wants to cupple small investors in order to finance the basic pension, Kurz warns against it.
Why was there so much excitement about the German order for Draghi? Because it is a symptom of how cool and routine the political class in Berlin nowadays people. The award ceremony exemplifies many things: of course, the expropriation of the savers. But also for an exaggerated welcome culture, galloping electricity prices, for the bad game with the diesel drivers. In short: for a policy that cannot (and cannot be) explained to people. It is justified only in the proclamation of a hypermoral (the refugees! The climate!), Which ignores the feeling of many citizens. Alienation and social division arise from this, but no warmth and no trust. The Vienna Chancellor enjoys this trust; his power base is his closeness to his voters. For Merkel, this makes him a walking provocation. He has what she lacks.