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Ex-country chief describes Union chaos at Corona summits - "Then Merkel asked: Well, what's that supposed to mean?"

2022-03-24T08:46:03.189Z


Ex-country chief describes Union chaos at Corona summits - "Then Merkel asked: Well, what's that supposed to mean?" Created: 03/24/2022Updated: 03/24/2022 09:40 By: Marcus Giebel Angela Merkel at a summit press conference - here with NRW Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst, new Chancellor Olaf Scholz and the ex-Berlin Mayor Michael Müller. © Michael Kappeler / dpa The pandemic has also brought the Cor


Ex-country chief describes Union chaos at Corona summits - "Then Merkel asked: Well, what's that supposed to mean?"

Created: 03/24/2022Updated: 03/24/2022 09:40

By: Marcus Giebel

Angela Merkel at a summit press conference - here with NRW Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst, new Chancellor Olaf Scholz and the ex-Berlin Mayor Michael Müller.

© Michael Kappeler / dpa

The pandemic has also brought the Corona summit - initially with Angela Merkel - into public awareness.

Michael Müller describes the processes.

Munich – The federal and state governments collide in prime ministerial conferences.

Which can make politics even more complicated.

As the debate rounds, also described as Corona summits, regularly demonstrated during the pandemic.

The virtual meetings cost nerves not only to the population, who were waiting for the things that were coming their way.

In the end, in most cases, 17 opinions had to be reconciled.

That's the ideal case.

Better said than done.

After all, different paths were often taken in the end.

Corona pandemic: Müller had ten hours to do on days with Prime Minister conferences

Michael Müller was right in the middle instead of just there.

As Governing Mayor, the SPD politician chaired the Prime Ministers' Conference (MPK) from October 2020 to September 2021 - i.e. during the second and third waves.

After the general election, he changed sides, and his new political home is the Reichstag building.

In a

Spiegel

interview, he gives an insight into what happened during the MPKs.

It was "two exhausting years": "The video switching often lasted for six or seven hours.

With preparation we easily got to ten.”

Corona summit: Ex-country chief describes Union chaos - "Then Merkel asked: Well, what's that about?"

From his point of view, the 57-year-old outlines the process as follows: make notes about your own ideas, record change requests in the round of the SPD-led countries, look at paper with new positions of the CDU-led countries, coordinate with the Chancellery, “and sometimes I thought : Wait a minute, I can hardly get through what we have just written down at home in the Senate.”

But that was not the end of the story: "And later, in the video switch with everyone, some Prime Ministers wanted to start all over again." The Chancellor was sometimes caught on the wrong foot when she thought she had checked off a point : "Angela Merkel sometimes said: 'Well, now we finally have a text that everyone can live with.'

And then colleagues came from the B side, that is, from the Union, and answered: 'No, that's not possible, we have to reformulate it again.'

Then Merkel asked: 'Well, what's that supposed to mean?

Why are we having a preliminary meeting?'”.

Prime Ministers' Conference because of Corona: "One sensed a basic skepticism in Merkel"

It's no wonder that Merkel shouldn't be a friend of these groups: "You could sense that she was fundamentally skeptical about the MPK.

Merkel would have liked to go further than many country leaders in the Corona measures, she made no secret of that.”

Müller was always considered the prime minister who struggled with the restrictions.

But he also shows understanding for the different opinions among the country heads: "Some countries with an external border to a neighboring country had exploding numbers because of commuters or people returning from vacation.

Others didn't.

It was difficult to make politics from a single source."

Video: Some federal states want to extend the mask requirement until the end of April

Corona pandemic and Prime Minister's Conference: In retrospect, Müller believes that the ban on accommodation is wrong

Nevertheless, he admits “mistakes in communication”: “Do you remember the ban on accommodation?

That word alone was weird.

There was a long debate about restricting travel between the federal states.

That was wrong, it weakened our Corona policy overall.

We have sometimes become wedged together rather than emphasizing the similarities between countries.”

Müller talks in detail about Markus Söder, his predecessor as MPK chairman and later his deputy.

His engaging appearances at the subsequent press conferences were not a reflection of the previous meetings: "He was one of 16 Prime Ministers, he did not dominate the discussions, sometimes he was even noticeably quiet."

Corona policy: "Söder sat alone in a room on the sixth floor of the Chancellery"

But he can't resist a swipe.

When the CSU boss chaired the MPK, “I sometimes had the impression that the CDU colleagues would have liked more coordination among themselves, more coordination on the proposed resolutions, and that there was a unified approach to the Chancellery.

Söder would have been primarily responsible for this as chairman.

He had other priorities.”

Müller is downright surprised that Bavaria's Prime Minister always traveled to Berlin later as deputy MPK chairman: "He then sat alone in a room on the sixth floor of the Chancellery in front of the screen, while Merkel and I sat together on the fourth floor.

Later, at the press conferences, we all performed together.

From the outside, it seemed as if Söder had spent the whole day with the Chancellor.

In fact, he only met us in the aisle ten minutes before the press conference.”

Three chairs, three opinions: Michael Müller (l.) Experienced many a prime ministerial conference alongside Angela Merkel and Markus Söder.

© FABRIZIO BENSCH/dpa

Corona and the Prime Minister's Conference: "A kind of ping-pong game" between Söder and Laschet

In addition, the duel over the Union Chancellor candidacy between Söder and Armin Laschet as Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia was reflected in the rounds: “There was sometimes a kind of ping-pong game in the conferences: If one said something, then it had to let the other say something about it.

Or their respective supporters.”

His conclusion on this point: "It made the consultation more difficult, it also delayed the work, but in the end the two did not dominate the decision texts."

Even if these days brought him a few sleepless nights, Müller considers the instrument itself to be the right strategy: “We didn’t make it easy for ourselves in the rounds, but federalism wasn’t the problem.

On the contrary, it was and is right to share responsibility."

(mg)

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2022-03-24

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