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Photo: Julien Warnand/EPA
In the past, bets were accepted in the capital bubble at the beginning of the long holidays, which will probably fill the summer slump this time.
Admittedly, that was silly.
In the meantime, and that's not funny either, there is no longer a summer slump, which I don't think is due to the media, but to the ongoing seriousness of the situation.
This is also the case now: this war summer of 2022 could become a
defining moment
for the Germans, and I can already hear the left-of-centre milieu wailing, because pathos cannot and does not want to be associated with anything good there.
Robert Habeck is working on it, but if he continues like this, he will soon no longer be a green man.
Years ago I wrote in the book Der Kleine Wahlerhasser (The Little Voter Hater) how politicians in Germany think of the “people out there in the country”, i.e. of the citizens, their voters.
That shapes the policies they make for the citizens more than you might think.
The conclusion was not particularly positive: In virtually all parties, they know that we are not subjects.
But a lot of politicians don't want to know that we're not children either, or they don't take it to heart.
In the gas crisis, politicians could finally dare to trust the citizens.
That would be one of the
defining moments
I was referring to at the beginning.
If it works?
The aforementioned Robert Habeck warned last week in the German Bundestag that Vladimir Putin was cutting back on gas in order to "prepare the breeding ground for his friends on the far right of the populism spectrum" by means of drastically rising prices.
The minister meant the AfD, and he is probably right with the motive research, the Kremlin has already sunk some effort into the neo-brown rubble troop.
At the same time, Habeck's premise is pseudo-historically crooked because it contains the insinuation of democratic fickleness and populist seduction - as if the middle in Germany were starting to vote AfD in droves because heating is becoming more expensive.
Last but not least, the Corona period has taught that the anger of certain groups can be quite great, but the AfD is no longer able to politically frame it nationwide.
People are just smarter now when it comes to this party.
Why should they get stupid again now?
more on the subject
Chronically ill and chronically poor: »There were days when I had to divide my last two pieces of bread« by Heike Klovert and Mascha Malburg
Nevertheless, the assumption of continued seductiveness does not disappear from the left-of-centre rhetoric repertoire (to which, of course, Angela Merkel also belonged on this point), and there are transparent reasons for this: These days, for example, the renewed suspension of the debt brake can be justified with it and the accompanying disempowerment of the liberal finance minister.
It's about tens of billions of euros, or the question of who the government should financially support again after the summer: largely everyone to administer an anti-extremist broadband sedative to the citizens - or a much smaller group that is objectively suffering?
That too will be a
defining moment
: for the government and for society at large.
What do we have to offer that comes close to the Ukrainians' willingness to make sacrifices?
I think it could be the solidarity of the top four with the bottom fifth in Germany: A second aid package for those who are really in need, while the others simply endure the losses.
The majority stands up for the minority, although it costs them something – that would have dignity and dignity.
The benchmark for neediness exists, it is the receipt of Hartz 4 and also perhaps the income zone from which full-time working families slide towards Hartz 4 (basic security for pensioners) because of the increased costs.
In total, we are talking about an estimated five to ten million people, 3.5 million of whom are currently on Hartz 4 and have their heating paid for by the authorities anyway.
Not so long ago, the Greens and SPD assigned a morally ennobled steering function to rising energy prices because of climate protection.
But if the same prices now rise because of Putin's war, they should be compensated by the state.
That's not logical.
Climate and war rhyme at the moment, but many in the Greens and the SPD are afraid of their own courage.
The matter has not yet been clarified: While the Chancellor is considering a one-off bonus for everyone, partly financed by the state, Kevin Kühnert wants to identify the group of those who are really in need over the summer, as you can read.
He has my support.
Anyone who has benefited from rising prices for years because they own shares or home ownership does not have to be compensated for the losses caused by rising prices.
And before anyone thinks that I've become an old-age left hand or demented and joined the camp of wealth tax fans: No, I think a red-green "war solo" is nonsense because it would never be abolished again, as has been the case since the imperial champagne tax or the »German unity solos« can know.
On the other hand, to let the properly and better off in the country bear a temporary (prosperity) loss themselves,
You win some, you lose some,
Bugs Bunny would say, my great philosopher of everyday life.
I would like German politics to be as relaxed as him.
And I think the majority of Germans have been there for a long time.
