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Career goal Chancellery
Photo: Christophe Gateau / DPA
The Federal Republic of Germany starts the super election year 2021 under optimal conditions: All potential chancellor candidates actually trust themselves to be chancellor.
It couldn't be better.
According to rumors, Friedrich Merz has been suitable as a chancellor since childhood.
One can well imagine how six-year-old Fritz was personally presented by the Sparkasse manager with a blue balloon for a proud 38 D-Mark in a piggy bank on World Savings Day.
But only by the way.
After countless men, the Green Annalena Baerbock declared as the first woman in the current race that she felt up to the most powerful office.
We already know that from Angela Merkel, but she no longer wants to take part.
If that were different, you could have given yourself the election campaign like the last three times.
In order not to run the risk of its reputation as a party of strong women solidifying, the Union has now returned to its roots and ensured early on that this time only male candidates are eligible.
Social democracy was convinced earlier than other parties that women as voters could not cause greater harm.
But the comrades are still unsure about the question of whether they should be left to lead an entire country.
So, following the candidates Steinmeier, Steinbrück and Schulz, they will continue to rely on the tried and tested formula in the coming year: older man with an S at the beginning.
So far this has not worked reliably.
All potential chancellor candidates have recently demonstrated their potential.
Armin Laschet managed to get his federal state through the pandemic comparatively lightly, although he often gave everything at public appearances to leave an impression that was as overwhelmed as possible.
With Markus Söder it was the other way around.
You have to manage that too first.
Olaf Scholz has to be credited with drawing the right conclusions from the unfortunate performance of his predecessor Martin Schulz.
A hype about his person has so far been successfully suppressed - and an increase in the polls for the SPD has been consistently prevented.
Annalena Baerbock and Robert Habeck are doing everything right anyway.
As long as everyone is wondering which of them is doing it, it is less noticeable how they dispose of items in order to be fully compatible.
Whether someone is really fit for a chancellor can never be said for sure in advance.
Unfortunately, it can never be said with certainty in advance whether someone is really fit for chancellor.
Angela Merkel, for example, was ridiculed as a "zone quail" before she took office in the CSU.
Hardly anyone once believed that she would make a sovereign chancellor.
I am sure that any of the above-mentioned can develop a similar development.
The prospects are good.
What would be nice now, though: some content maybe.
A real social concern.
An idea of what our country, our society should look like in five or ten years.
Gladly different.
Then Germany would really be optimally positioned for this election year.
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