The situation - super election year 2021: who will do what in the traffic light cabinet?

The magic of the traffic lights is gone

When there is so much talk about boosting these days, I keep thinking of my early teenage years in the eighties.

At that time the series "Knight Rider" ran in the evening program, I wasn't a particularly big fan of the justice fighter Michael Knight alias David Hasselhoff, but of course everyone knew the now legendary high-tech tricks of his wonder car KITT - especially the "Turbo Boost" which the black Pontiac Firebird Trans Am could jump over obstacles at the push of a button.

Admittedly, it doesn't do justice to the seriousness of the situation:

The sad thing is, it could have worked without the miracle button.

If politics didn't

one more time

.

If the federal government still in office, in which the SPD is known to be involved, had organized the booster vaccinations at an early stage, especially for the elderly.

The future traffic light coalition should have recognized early on that it is not just about any legal basis in the fight against the virus.

Now there is hectic readjustment, attempts are being made in this strange limbo between the old government and the new not-yet-government to save what may possibly no longer be saved: 3G, 2G, 2G-Plus, lockdown for unvaccinated people, debate about compulsory vaccination , Boosters for everyone and earlier.

But it doesn't change that:

The traffic light dawns that not much will remain of the magic of the first green and yellow selfie together.

If Olaf Scholz, who has been in »Silent Mode« up to now (another KITT function - for an extra quiet, inconspicuous engine noise), is elected Chancellor in St. Winter stumbles and is not in the mood for a new beginning.

, in the 100-day balance, this can already be predicted, there will be many, many corona deaths.

Who will what

That is the situation in which the 21 main negotiators from the SPD, Greens and FDP are now formulating the coalition agreement on the basis of the results of the specialist working groups.

The work should be finished by next week.

The top level now also has to talk about the

: How many ministerial posts are there?

How are the departments tailored?

And who does what job?

A look at the staff carousel:

As the future Federal Chancellor,

his most important confidante

, previously State Secretary for Finance, head of the Chancellery. Of the

ministers still in office,

for the new government: He should remain minister of labor - unless

returns,

surprisingly

. Also

(previously Environment) and

(previously Justice) can calculate chances, but probably they would have to change the departments (Science and indoor).

Rolf Mützenich

, still leader of the parliamentary group, is

for the development

, in connection with the defense ministry the young politician

named.

The parliamentary managing director

(economy) and corona declarer

(health)

are also considered to be

ministerial

.

Annalena Baerbock

and

will definitely

the government

for the

.

Habeck's dream ministry of finance is likely to be grabbed by the FDP, so it seems plausible that Habeck is now preparing for a super climate transformation ministry (or is it for the interior ministry?).

Baerbock could move into the Foreign Office.

Fractional leader

can hope

that his first choice would be the Ministry of Transport. A woman from the left wing would then be wanted, possibly for agriculture or a family ministry upgraded to a social department. If there is still more to distribute,

or

considered cabinet candidates.

FDP leader

wants to become finance minister, that much is clear.

In addition, two names keep coming up:

, previously Secretary General, could become Minister of Justice,

, Hessian FDP chairwoman, Minister for Education and / or Digitization.

The Lindner confidante and parliamentary group manager

is also considered to be

.

Disclaimer: Everything is related to everything, if one becomes this, another may possibly no longer become that.

And the relationship has to be right, between the federal states, between East and West, between women and men, between young and old.Surprises cannot be ruled out.

What the polls say

The application deadline for the CDU chairmanship ends on this Wednesday.

And if somebody doesn't quite surprisingly hand in their documents including the nomination notification in the Konrad-Adenauer-Haus by 6 p.m., then three men decide among themselves.

A woman actually wanted to, but Sabine Buder failed, her district association did not set it up.

Admittedly, the last-minute candidacy attempt by the Brandenburg CDU politician did not seem very convincing (and certainly not at all promising), but the fact that her party friends failed Buder so rudely

.

So there are left to choose from:

Helge Braun?

Serious?

When I heard that the head of the Chancellery, who was still in office, wanted to become chairman of the CDU, I couldn't believe it at first.

Braun is too closely associated with the Merkel era, his demeanor too cautious for the idea: This is the man who can lead the party out of its existential crisis.

On the other hand: the Chancellor is still popular.

And the alternatives, Merz and Röttgen, aren't exactly fresh from the debutant ball either.

So let's let the pollsters from the Civey Institute speak to the people in the country and, above all, the supporters of the Union:

Not surprisingly, Merz comes off significantly worse in the German electoral population than in the Union clientele.

As expected, the conservative retro charm of the twice failed head aspirant does not go down well in the center-left camp, which pulls Merz's values ​​down.

Only a little more than a third of Germans would think it would be a good thing if Merz determined the course of the CDU in the future.

Norbert Röttgen does only marginally better, but received significantly fewer negative votes.

And Helge Braun only achieved just over 20 percent.

Only, someone has to do it.

Around 45 percent could live well with Röttgen.

The statistical error is slightly higher in the survey by party preference.

At Helge Braun, however, this is no longer important.

Now I can hear you protesting, and you're right: in the end, only those who have a CDU party book will decide.

And the mood can look very different there.

The member survey will run from December 4th to 16th, and the result will be announced on December 17th.

The constituency of the week: # 173

Speaking of bad numbers for the outgoing Chancellery Minister: In the Bundestag election, Helge Braun wanted to defend his constituency, which he had previously won three times, in the Bundestag election - and failed.

And not against an SPD celebrity or any parliamentary veteran.

Felix Döring is the man who took Braun's direct mandate by a narrow margin

, 30 years old, previously a junior teacher in preparatory work at a comprehensive school, now a

to the Bundestag.

The SPD newspaper »Vorwärts« shows that Döring rang over the central Hessian villages around Giessen with a handcart including a loudspeaker system and a four-meter-tall Felix Döring flag during the election campaign.

His slogan: "The boy does it."

In spite of this, Braun made it into the Bundestag thanks to being number one in the Hesse state list.

Friedrich Merz won in the Hochsauerlandkreis, but with a modest 40.4 percent for his standards.

Between 1994 and 2005, when Merz was already successful here, it was always well over 50 percent.

Norbert Röttgen won in the constituency Rhein-Sieg II with 40 percent clearly ahead of his SPD rival, but it was also the weakest first vote result for him since he started here in 1994.

The social media moment of the week

It will hardly really surprise anyone who has committed to vaccination on Twitter: Politicians like Manuela Schwesig, Peter Altmaier or Cem Özdemir, the musicians Igor Levit and Smudo, the virologist Melanie Brinkmann. All of you and many other more or less well-known personalities have advertised the injection against Corona in similar posts in the past few days - motto:

The trend apparently started on Sunday by the actor and comedian Florian Hacke, in view of the rapidly increasing number of infections, filling intensive care units and a stagnating vaccination rate.

So the background is serious, at the same time #allesindenArm is supposed to counter earlier celebrity campaigns against the corona measures such as #allesaufdenTisch and #allesdichtmachen - hence the somewhat weird hashtag.

That is all well meant.

It is also perfectly okay if the vaccination advocates make it clear on social media that the vaccination skeptics and opponents are loud, but clearly in the minority.

But does that bring anything?

Certainly not if you use the vaccination certificate to insult those who do not participate (even if some emotions are quite understandable).

But also provided with good arguments - I don't think that any vaccination doubters can be persuaded from such appeals to injections.

In the then small Twitter bubble, the fronts hardened accordingly quickly.

So give up, leave vaccine refusers to the virus?

Certainly not, every effort to increase the vaccination rate is worthwhile.

For real persuasion, however, a personal conversation and the exchange of more than 280 characters are probably better.

Or just gentle pressure with nationwide 2G rules.

The stories of the week

I would particularly like to recommend these politically relevant stories from our capital city office to you:

• Corona crisis: does the traffic light still make vaccination compulsory?

• Merz and the CDU chairmanship: Showtime, Part III

• SPIEGEL survey: majority considers corona measures to be insufficient

Heartfelt,

Your Philipp Wittrock

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