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Steinbrück wants to wake up Germans from "comfort" - Merkel video makes Lanz giggle

2022-10-08T04:45:25.015Z


Steinbrück wants to wake up Germans from "comfort" - Merkel video makes Lanz giggle Created: 2022-10-08 06:34 Former Finance Minister Peer Steinbrück (SPD) as a guest at “Markus Lanz”. © Cornelia Lehmann/ZDF Peer Steinbrück reveals what the traffic light coalition can learn from him and Angela Merkel - and why Olaf Scholz is more helpful in the chancellery than "a cowboy". Hamburg – From 2005


Steinbrück wants to wake up Germans from "comfort" - Merkel video makes Lanz giggle

Created: 2022-10-08 06:34

Former Finance Minister Peer Steinbrück (SPD) as a guest at “Markus Lanz”.

© Cornelia Lehmann/ZDF

Peer Steinbrück reveals what the traffic light coalition can learn from him and Angela Merkel - and why Olaf Scholz is more helpful in the chancellery than "a cowboy".

Hamburg – From 2005 to 2009, Peer Steinbrück was SPD finance minister under Angela Merkel (CDU).

In 2013 he reached for the chancellorship himself, but was defeated by his head of cabinet.

Steinbrück now evaluates the work of the federal government from the sidelines with Markus Lanz.

He doesn't skimp on criticism.

In particular, the disputes of the traffic light coalition make him mad.

On the other hand, he has a lot of praise for the man who has achieved what Steinbrück was denied.

Steinbrück claims to have done the right thing at the time, which the traffic light is currently unable to do.

Lanz shows archive footage of a press conference by Merkel and Steinbrück on October 5, 2008. The reason was the financial crisis.

In other states, long queues had already formed in front of the banks because people had picked up their money.

"We saw these pictures and wanted to prevent them in Germany with all our might," explains Steinbrück.

Many banks would have plunged into an even deeper crisis if citizens had emptied their accounts, he says.

"Markus Lanz" - these guests discussed on October 6th:

  • Peer Steinbrück (SPD)

    – former Federal Minister of Finance

  • Sarah Pagung -

    Russia Expert

  • Michael Bröcker

    – Editor-in-Chief “Media Pioneer”

"We tell the savers that their deposits are safe," said Merkel, remembers Steinmeier.

Lanz giggles before the video fades in.

"Pay attention to Merkel's gaze.

She says this sentence and then looks up at you as if she wants to know: And did I do everything right?” Even Steinbrück can't help but grin from time to time.

Because today it seems that the press conference at the time was not least symbolic politics for the public.

The banking crisis was at its peak.

Hypo Real Estate was on the verge of bankruptcy and was eventually nationalized.

Scholz praise in the Ukraine war: Steinbrück is “glad when there is no hothead in the Chancellery”

Previously, some so-called financial experts had advised citizens to invest their money elsewhere.

Even in Germany, some ATMs were empty as a result.

"But," emphasizes Steinbrück, to draw a comparison with the current government, "there was no party dispute in the grand coalition in the fight against the crisis at the time."

Nevertheless, SPD party friend Olaf Scholz, as Federal Chancellor, received express praise from Steinbrück for his level-headed attitude in the Ukraine war: "Because the risks that still seem to be lurking in the background, with a view to someone who is constantly tightening the escalation screw, lead to me to the fact that I am very happy when there is no hothead, no cowboy, no man in the Federal Chancellery who is particularly boastful and no one who goes it alone nationally, but someone who is aware of the risks of further development.

"Lanz": Steinbrück speaks of "time break" instead of a turning point

This applies above all against the background that Germany is experiencing "probably the most difficult and most far-reaching challenge since reunification".

Steinbrück admits: He is glad that he is no longer responsible.

"Younger politicians are better at dealing with stress," he says with a grin.

However, in an unprecedented situation, one must also allow errors.

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Report on "nervous" Putin: Is the Kremlin chief hiding in the nuclear shelter?

Steinbrück disagrees with Scholz when it comes to the term “turning point” coined by the Federal Chancellor.

Turning sounds too mild, does not do justice to the upheaval: "I would speak of a break in the times".

Although Germany is not immediately at war, Steinbrück expects the government to explain better what the developments mean.

One has to understand that we have to slowly wake up from a “long-cultivated comfort and lightness”.

Then it would also be clear to every citizen that everyone had to make a contribution "that we cannot be blackmailed".

"Every citizen must be asked what their personal contribution is," Steinbrück adds.

Ukraine War and the Energy Crisis: "It's Going to Get Significantly Worse Before It Gets Better"

The journalist Michael Bröcker is certain that the Ukraine war will have even more severe economic effects in Germany than is already the case: “We will get into a situation where there will be dramatic losers.

And it's going to be really expensive, and for some people it's also really tight." He is certain that the gas shortage will come, "one way or the other".

That's why it gets "significantly worse before it gets better".

Markus Lanz discusses with his guests Peer Steinbrück, Sarah Pagung (Russia expert) and Michael Bröcker (editor-in-chief "Media Pioneer").

© Cornelia Lehmann/ZDF

Russia expert Sarah Pagung believes there will be no nuclear war.

In their opinion, Putin could not benefit from a nuclear dispute.

Pagung judges the military-political side of the conflict to be "ambivalent".

On the one hand, the risk of using tactical nuclear weapons is increasing with Russia's currently looming "conventional defeat"; on the other hand, there are a number of reasons that speak against it.

A nuclear strike could not even help Russia to solve the military problems in Ukraine.

“Russia cannot conquer, cannot hold, cannot control.

A nuclear warhead is of little use to them,” says Pagung.

"Markus Lanz" - The conclusion of the show

The fact that Peer Steinbrück only rarely appears in public is regrettable after this Lanz show.

Always with a certain amount of humor, the ex-minister evaluates the past and draws conclusions about the present.

The fact that he does it with "a fatal tendency towards honesty", as Lanz says, enriches his statements immensely.

(Christoph Heuser)

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2022-10-08

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