On Monday afternoon the time had come it was due to be a hard but fair day for Olaf Scholz. Who asked the question of trust one he lost it emphatically, clearing the way for new elections in Germany. He took care of the first campaign images in the plenary hall of the German Bundestag.
SPD parliamentary group leader Rolf Mützenich shook Scholz’s hand, SPD party leader Saskia Esken approached from the side. Scholz looked in her direction, then turned pointedly away from her and left the meeting room with Mützenich. Then Esken who was left behind just raised her hands in frustration. In German politics harmony looks different.
Hard but fair
The fact that Esken made critical comments about the traffic light policy during TV appearances also brought her trouble within the party in the past. Brandenburg’s finance minister and SPD deputy Katrin Lange told Bild that Esken should be banned from talk shows.
The SPD party leader is not very impressed by this and discusses it on the talk show on Monday evening Hard but fair with moderator Louis Klamroth about the future of the automotive industry, the debt brake and migration.
If you can’t manage the budget, you’ve failed
Reiner Haseloff, Prime Minister of Saxony-Anhalt (CDU), Gregor Gysi, member of the Bundestag (Left Party), and Christian Dürr, FDP parliamentary group leader in the Bundestag, are hotly opposed. The deputy “Spiegel” editor-in-chief Melanie Amann takes a critical stance and Svenja Bolldorf, an employee at the Ford factory in Cologne, describes her concerns about the automotive industry.
The fact that Scholz denied former Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) the “moral maturity” to participate in government in his Bundestag speech was “brutal and inappropriate,” says Melanie Amann from “Spiegel”. What was positive about the plenary debate on the question of trust was that “you really noticed what the political differences were between the most important democratic parties.”
For Gregor Gysi (Left), the failure of the traffic light means: “This means that a certain model is ruled out for years. This model is no longer conceivable in the near future.” “Ultimately, the traffic light failed because of money,” says Reiner Haseloff (CDU), summing up the time in government of the traffic light coalition: “If you can’t manage the budget, you have failed.”
Ford is cutting 2900 jobs
Svenja Bolldorf describes her working situation at Ford in Cologne. She doesn’t have to worry about her job yet, even though Ford is cutting 2900 jobs across Germany by the end of 2027. Nevertheless, she is worried about her future:
“It is the third time that there have been plans to cut jobs on a large scale within five years.” She “no longer understands how this is supposed to work.” That is why she is pushing the concern about: “Will I still be able to afford my apartment in the future?”
The German car industry in big trouble
The idea from the draft of the SPD election program: a temporary tax relief for the purchase of an electric car produced in Germany. “This is a total illusion,” criticizes Amann. The car industry’s business model cannot be saved with “government money through a reform of the debt brake”. Haseloff basically doesn’t want to touch the debt brake. Frankly speaking, the German car industry in big trouble and as teh backbone of the German economy, it is worrying for all of Europe.
For him there is only one exception: if necessary, an “emergency situation” can be declared for investments. Amann is certain: Friedrich Merz, as Chancellor, would tackle the debt brake “after the election.” Otherwise, the CDU’s planned projects cannot be implemented.
Christian Dürr insists: The FDP stands by the debt brake. Despite many discrepancies, the traffic light managed to increase “the federal government’s investment rate from ten to 20 percent”. That’s not enough for Gysi: “I feel like I’m in a developing country.” He can’t even rely on a telephone connection in Germany. Many African countries are more progressive.
Migration issue is the most divisive
Things are getting heated when it comes to the migration issue. Klamroth introduces Jens Spahn (CDU)’s proposal to pay Syrians 1,000 euros to return home. Haseloff is vague about this. It is not about migrants “who are integrated into the labor market”. The focus is on the “rejected or delinquent” Syrians.
“You don’t want to pay criminals 1,000 euros to leave?” Esken objects. “You did it with the Afghans,” Amann replies. “There are clear constitutional procedures that we have to adhere to,” says Haseloff: “The fact that the AFD is so strong everywhere is precisely because we don’t even implement our agreements and legal principles.” “Yes, we do,” Esken counters. Then Gysi throws his hands together over his head: “My God, a coalition between them must be exhausting.”