As of: March 29, 2024, 9:58 a.m
By: Hannes Niemeyer
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How does the traffic light actually communicate its plans to the municipalities that have to implement them? Lanz invites the base to a talk. She surprises him several times.
Hamburg – housing benefit, heating law and much more. The traffic light government decides on many things in Berlin that should apply to the whole of Germany. However, the implementation often lies somewhere else entirely; the absolute base in the region is partly responsible for ensuring that what is planned succeeds. It was precisely this basis that Markus Lanz invited to the talk on Thursday evening (March 28th). It quickly became clear: implementing the plans is not that easy, especially at the local level. Sometimes communication fails.
Traffic light government “lives in a different reality”: District administrator makes serious allegations against Lanz
A certain dissatisfaction with, so to speak, cooperation with the traffic light is clearly visible in the Lanz group. Bettina Dickes, for example, CDU district administrator from Bad Kreuznach, directly accuses the government of making promises that simply cannot be kept, claiming: “Berlin lives in a different reality.” Katja Wolf, BSW mayor of Eisenach, Thuringia, also sees herself and her colleagues as “the last in line, the last who have to suffer” if another decision is made.
The implementation of things like housing benefit, the integration of refugees or heat planning are of course all absolutely important tasks, but Wolf feels “left alone” by the federal government. There would be little that went beyond “cheap words”. Communication was poor and there were few explanations. Some quick changes are simply no longer comprehensible.
Markus Lanz: The guests of the show on March 28th on ZDF
Bettina Dickes, CDU district administrator from Bad-Kreuznach
Felix Schwenke, SPD mayor of the city of Offenbach
Christine Herntier, non-party mayor of the city of Spremberg
Katja Wolf, BSW mayor of the city of Eisenach
Digitalization in Germany horrifies mayor at Lanz: “Quasi Neanderthal”
Felix Schwenke, SPD mayor of the city of Offenbach, takes a similar approach. His suggestion for an experiment: “Someone should come forward with the aim of promising little in particular. If the person even wins the election afterwards, perhaps a lot has been gained for Germany.” When it comes to points like housing benefit, however, one should also understand that it takes a little while until something effective comes along. The same applies to the heating law. “If you find out in February that you need a new heating system from next January, then it won’t work,” says Schwenke.
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For better scaling, you could of course try to digitize administration. In this respect, however, Germany is “virtually Neanderthal”. Federal support? “Zero,” says Schwenke. Instead, “everyone would have to develop their own digitization process from the bottom up.” At this point he is obliged to help the traffic light.
The mayor reports on traffic light communication to municipalities – and Lanz is surprised: “From the radio?”
However, Lanz cannot let go of the topic of legal changes. The moderator wants to know from Mayor Wolf how such changes are communicated from the federal government to the local level. “Are you getting an e-mail, a letter, a fax?” – Wolf first utters a simple “no,” then explains: “Most of the time it is actually that we too depend on listening to the news, the Tagesschau and to follow the today's journal, to collect the information." Lanz interrupts her, both horrified and surprised: "Excuse me, just briefly: you heard about this from the radio, from the television?" The district administrator also intervenes with a clear "yes". Thick again. You can find out most of it “not by writing a cover letter to us, but by following political debates.”
But things don't always turn out quite so drastically. “If you’re a member of the city association, we get the information there too,” explains Schwenke. Christine Herntier, non-party mayor of the city of Spremberg, agrees, explaining that it's part of watching the news and staying tuned. Of course, the information is “often very abbreviated”. But she also says: “We are informed very promptly about our association of cities and municipalities.” In certain cases there would even be an opportunity to comment. “What ultimately reaches the legislature at the state or federal level is one thing. But the opportunity, which is often very short in time, does exist.”
Markus Lanz also spoke to his guests about the difficult implementation of traffic light plans at the municipal level. © Screenshot ZDF
“Naive” Lanz questions legal announcements: “We promise a lot, we deliver little – and then comes the frustration.”
According to her, the problem is much more: the people who are affected “do not live in the state parliament or the Bundestag”. Of course, they also have questions about such news. The first point of contact is the town hall. However, the number of tasks is “increasing more and more”. If local politics gets involved, there can also be friction. “It’s not easy,” she admits.
“You don’t really understand how something comes to you like that,” adds Lanz, who finds it “amazing.” He actually thought that when you promise something as a government, you first make sure that it is “feasible”. He only gets a tired laugh and a “no” from Dickes. Lanz outs himself, claiming he probably sounds like a “total naive.” Dickes doesn't want to accuse any federal politician of bad intentions, but adds: "The question of implementation is simply not questioned." Their conclusion: Germany is an “all-caring state. We promise a lot, we deliver little – and then the state becomes frustrated.” Her plea: “It’s better to make fewer promises and keep them.”
(han)