From “blackout” to “hand condoms”: Giffey prepares Lanz for partial power failures – then the joke takes over

Created: 09/25/2022, 04:59 am

The governing mayor of Berlin Franziska Giffey (SPD) as a guest at "Markus Lanz".

© Cornelia Lehmann/ZDF

Winter is just around the corner and Markus Lanz is painting gloomy scenarios on the wall.

Franziska Giffey comes under pressure – before the round threatens to slide into jokes.

Hamburg – Markus Lanz goes into a verbal battle with the SPD in his ZDF talk on Thursday: The Governing Mayor of Berlin, Franziska Giffey, comes to the round on behalf of the federal government in the need for an explanation – and leans considerably out of the window.

The accusation: election campaign politics in the Ukraine war.

With regard to the state elections in Lower Saxony, publicist Hajo Schumacher comments that Robert Habeck has so far been reticent about nuclear power and Christian Lindner about the debt brake - and Giffey admits: "Of course that plays a role, you have to say that very clearly".

She also provides a thesis for the background: The "fight against nuclear power" is after all a "founding myth of the Greens".

Lanz is surprised: "I wouldn't dare to say it like that".

"Markus Lanz" - these guests discussed with:

• Franziska Giffey

   (

  SPD) -

  Governing Mayor of Berlin

• dr

  Lamia Messari-Becker -

  Professor of Building Technology

• Stephan Grünewald -

  Psychologist, Managing Director of the Rheingold Institute for qualitative market and media analysis

• Hajo Schumacher -

  publicist

Lanz is once again dealing with the topic of the energy crisis.

This time the presenter gets up and describes in front of a studio background with the word "Blackout" in bold red letters what Germany could be threatened with: not just a lack of heat and light.

Sewage treatment plants would no longer work either, the railway network would collapse, there would be no more possibility for evacuation measures, no petrol supply, no more news and information.

"No more Markus Lanz either," Schumacher ironically adds to the presenter's depiction of the apocalypse, which is a little too reminiscent of a Hollywood thriller.

"A horror scenario," summarizes expert Lamia Messari-Becker.

The professor of building technology does not consider the risk of a chain reaction to be entirely unrealistic: "We need electricity in places where we can't imagine it," she warns.

And makes it clear: Oil heating also needs electricity, just like the drinking water supply in households.

But to prevent this, there are “evacuation plans” in all municipalities and emergency plans in the responsible ministries.

But Messari-Becker makes it clear again: At the moment we are still very far away from that.

Berlin's Mayor Giffey does not rule out power outages lasting two or three hours

Giffey is also not very enthusiastic about Lanz's horror scenario: Pictures like these only stir up fear in the population, which is not very beneficial, says the governing mayor.

However, she admits that Berlin could theoretically be threatened by this scenario - given a chain of many circumstances.

Therefore, preparations were made to protect the capital from a total power failure.

Avoiding damage to the systems is the "most important point", according to Giffey, and does not rule out partial and announced power outages for "two to three hours".

Lanz continues to drill and Giffey now sees himself on the defensive: just because there are plans for an emergency, it doesn't automatically mean "that such a situation will occur tomorrow," emphasizes the politician.

You do "everything" to ensure that it doesn't happen.

Lanz does not give up and attacks Giffey from another side.

When Giffey reports on a bakery whose monthly energy prices have recently risen from around 2,000 to 12,000 euros a month, Lanz wants to know whether she could promise the company: "We'll save you!"

Giffey reacted sourly: "I can't guarantee that, Mr. Lanz, you know that too" and refers to the "federal level" and the Prime Minister's Conference on September 28th.

The SPD politician calls for both the "energy saving cap" and the necessary dissolution of the "debt brake".

Giffey with a desperate sounding tone: "We have an exceptional situation!"

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When Lanz Giffey - whose poll numbers are currently at an all-time low - raises the possibility of new elections in Berlin because of unconstitutional circumstances in the last state elections, she brushes the topic aside: "The topic of by-elections will be important sometime in March, but not now.

Now we first have to relieve the population and ensure that people get to safety faster.”

When it comes to “washcloths” there is joy: Psychologist speaks of “hand condoms”

When the question arises as to what citizens can do themselves to mitigate the consequences of the energy crisis, the level of concern in the group drops noticeably.

But it also makes it more entertaining.

The psychologist and market analyst Stephan Grünewald comments on the savings proposal made by Baden-Württemberg's Prime Minister Winfried Kretschmann to use washcloths instead of showering.

Grünewald explains that such statements would be understood by large parts of the population as "paternalism".

The "hand condom", Grünwald continues - and at least earns a laugh from Lanz - spoils the sensual experience of the refreshing morning shower.

The listener gets an image of a "dark, cold winter" in which one is not even "allowed to come into contact with oneself", according to the psychologist.

The "scratchy rag" also awakens unpleasant childhood memories in many people of the time when they were "scrubbed off" by their parents as a child.

Grünwald's prognosis is less funny with regard to people's willingness to show solidarity: according to the expert, it is on the decline.

A development towards lone fighters can currently be seen.

With the multiple crises that we are currently experiencing as a society, more attention should be paid to preserving “social peace”, Grünwald warns.

Conclusion of the "Markus Lanz" talk

Could, could have - the vocabulary of the talk show.

Could there be a blackout in Berlin?

Could half of the population face professional and personal bankruptcy after this winter?

Could the country's supply collapse?

Lanz digs deep into the horror scenario box and emphasizes: "We don't want to scare anyone here," but continues to paint the devil on the wall - sometimes surprisingly amused.

Hardly anyone picks that up.