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Traffic light coalition starts: who surprises with which ministry?

2021-11-24T15:53:23.707Z


The SPD, the Greens and the FDP can govern, the coalition agreement is ready. Everyone won, everyone lost. What does the country expect now? And how does the new government want to deal with the corona crisis?


Here we go

Habemus a new government, habemus a coordinated working basis: Today the traffic light coalitionists presented their results from the previous weeks of negotiations.

The work has 177 pages and contains a few surprises, albeit in a manageable number.

It is of course a work of compromise, without major outliers, it now depends on how agile this coalition will really act.

One of the few surprises of the paper is that the

Ministry of Transport will

not get the Greens, but the Liberals will take care of it and also integrate the

digital

sector at the

same time.

In return, the Greens have

power over all issues

relating to

climate and nature conservation

: Robert Habeck will head a mega-ministry that combines economy and climate protection.

There will also be a green ministry for the environment, nature conservation, nuclear safety and consumer protection.

This probably explains why the coal phase-out is still not binding, but only "ideally" in 2030.

In the opinion of most experts, however, an early exit is essential in order to at least get close to the 1.5-degree target.

The coalition agreement is also reluctant to make specific statements about the CO2 price, a decisive control factor for the climate change.

"We are relying on rising CO2 prices as an important instrument, combined with a strong social balance, and we will support people with lower incomes in particular," it simply says.

And elsewhere: The CO₂ should not fall below 60 euros per ton in the long term.

After all, the coalition partners are unanimous on key social issues, such as strengthening children's rights, a clear commitment to Germany as a country of immigration and a reform of family law.

Yes, it is a departure, but one in slow motion.

Corona winter 2020 = Corona winter 2021

Do you remember what was going on a year ago? The prime ministers extended a partial lockdown, restaurants, leisure and cultural facilities remained closed, contact restrictions were tightened, the mask requirement expanded, and there should only be slight easing over the Christmas period. And the Chancellor called for a further "effort" to break the exponential growth in the number of infections. That was Corona at the end of 2020.

At the end of 2021 we are heading for a similar scenario - and this sentence alone contains a surrender

: The question of how catastrophically the country could slide into this fourth phase of the pandemic, even though there was enough vaccine to protect every adult in good time, belongs entirely to

us

on top of the list of future historians to come to terms with.

In any case, the future government is likely to start work at a time when the intensive care units are overloaded, doctors are dealing with triage issues, many people are dying and there is a de facto partial lockdown in schools, given the many quarantine cases to be expected - there are she already now.

How the traffic light coalitionists want to fight the foreseeable catastrophe specifically and effectively, they have withheld from the public for a long time.

And so it was the Executive Chancellor who yesterday tore all three party leaders out of their coalition negotiations and summoned them to the Chancellery

to deal with the most acute problems of this country for at least an hour.

Today, Olaf Scholz, the long silent man, finally went on the offensive for the first time and announced concrete measures: a federal-state crisis team in the Chancellery, the involvement of scientific experts - and, the most concrete message, the compulsory vaccination for employees in facilities such as hospitals and Nursing homes should come.

But is that enough to actually break the wave, or at least to moderate it?

No certainly not.

The future Chancellor did not say a single word about the question of how children and young people should survive the fourth wave.

There are already rumors among the Greens that the Bundestag will soon have to vote on a lockdown.

Scholz did not use this word either.

The liberals are now likely to get closer to the idea that at some point they will also have to consider compulsory vaccination.

Although it is clear that this step does not help much in the acute situation.

The federal states are now tightening their measures almost every day, there are curfews, contact restrictions, closed clubs and concert halls.

So we are experiencing a déjà vu, a country that has been half asleep again.

Even after two years of pandemic, society and politics have apparently learned nothing from it.

That is the bitter realization these days.

What the polls say

In the Sunday issue, the Union parties have worked their way back to the SPD over the past few weeks.

In the current survey by the opinion research institute Civey for SPIEGEL, the SPD achieved 25 percent, the CDU and CSU came to 24 percent.

The Greens remain stable at 15 percent, the FDP is losing something and is now - on par with the AfD - at 11 percent.

The left hangs at the 5 percent mark.

The constituency of the week: # 005

During the election campaign, the Berlin CDU politician and ex-health senator Mario Czaja drove through his constituency as a "citizen fire brigade" in a converted Barkas fire service bus from the GDR. In the end, he succeeded in what no other Union candidate in the East managed to do:

he turned a constituency

- and took the direct mandate from the left, of all

things,

after decades of certainty of victory. Petra Pau only got 22 percent of the vote, Czaja almost 30 percent. And that in a district in which Europe's largest contiguous prefabricated building district is located.

The former Berlin Health Senator could soon speak as Secretary General for the CDU, Friedrich Merz has brought him into his team alongside the Baden-Württemberg local politician Christina Stumpp, and according to what the polls say, Merz has no bad chances of counting the Member votes to emerge as the winner on December 17th.

The couple could hardly be more different: While Merz warned 20 years ago as the leader of the Union faction in the Bundestag of a red-red state government in Berlin and threatened to cut funds in the capital, Czaja countered that Merz had a "funny understanding of democracy". Czaja is considered to be the

greatest leftist in his party

, he praises his competitor Pau beyond measure, is friends with Gregor Gysi and occasionally meets with left-wing parliamentary group leader Dietmar Bartsch at 1. FC Union Berlin in the stadium.

Personnel is a strategic move by Merz, he wants to signal openness to his party in all directions and thus collect popularity points.

One of the surprising observations of this chairmanship is that in old age he could still show himself mildly towards left-wing positions.

The social media moment of the week

The question arises as to how Karl Lauterbach should run a ministry between all the study reading, the talk show appearances and the votes in the Bundestag.

According to many Twitter users, it should.

In the social network, in any case, a large fan base is of the opinion that the SPD politician would do all of this and, in view of his foresight and expertise, which was proven in the pandemic, would be suitable for the office of Federal Minister of Health like no other or any other.

Under

#wirwollenkarl

there is strong advertising, a similarly arguing, but significantly smaller group campaigned for the green member of the Bundestag, doctor and health expert Janosch Dahmen under #wirwollenjanosch, because Dahmen also impressed during the pandemic with crystal-clear expertise, the right diagnoses and suggestions.

The office, so you can hear, was passed around like a hot potato during the coalition negotiations: History also shows that as an incumbent one can actually only lose in prestige and power, Jens Spahn is the latest example of this.

In the end, the department ended up with the SPD, Karl Lauterbach can still hope.

Only at the beginning of December does Olaf Scholz want to announce who will become what in the cabinet from the SPD.

The stories of the week

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

  • Everyone is talking about compulsory vaccination, a majority want it.

    My colleague Julia Merlot describes how it could be designed here.

  • How have other countries managed to increase the vaccination rate?

    A data analysis by my colleague Patrick Storz.

  • In the first phase, Jens Spahn had the chance to emerge as the hero of the pandemic.

    Today most of the judgments against him are devastating.

    Read here why that is.

Heartfelt,

Your Martin Knobbe

And once again the note on our own behalf: You can order this briefing here as a newsletter in your e-mail inbox.

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2021-11-24

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