Berlin The relationship between finance ministers and economics ministers has traditionally been difficult. Olaf Scholz (SPD) and Peter Altmaier (CDU) have publicly demonstrated solidarity in the corona crisis in recent years, but at the same time worked in the background. The constellation will be even more difficult in the coming traffic light government.
Both super ministers have so far been equally well received by the citizens. In a survey by the Civey Institute for the Handelsblatt, 50 percent of those questioned rate it as positive that Lindner will become finance minister. 35 percent think it’s negative, the rest are undecided.
At Habeck, the values are almost identical: 48 percent of those surveyed see it as positive that he takes over the office of Minister for Climate and Economics, 38 percent see it negatively. And among their own followers, the approval ratings are particularly high at 96 percent (Lindner) and 94 percent (Habeck).
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In order not to disappoint the high expectations, Lindner and Habeck are currently preparing for their task. The search for top staff is in full swing so that we can get started right at the beginning of the legislative period.
Ministry of Finance: New minds and proven experts
With the finance ministry, Lindner takes over a house that his predecessor Scholz had already expanded into a subsidiary chancellery. Lindner will also fall back on four state secretaries to organize not only the financial policy, but also the coordination between the other FDP departments within the government.
This task is likely to arise Steffen Saebisch To take care of. According to the FDP, the managing director of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation had already given Lindner significant support during the coalition negotiations. He was set as the state secretary responsible for the management of the ministry and the coordination of departments. Before his job at the Naumann Foundation, Saebisch was State Secretary in the Hessian Ministry of Economics.
For the important post as State Secretary for European and financial market policy Stefan Kapferer to be in a conversation. The FDP member has a lot of government experience. First he worked as State Secretary in the Lower Saxony Ministry of Economics under Philipp Rösler. He followed him in 2009 when the black and yellow federal government was formed in Berlin, where he became State Secretary in the Ministry of Health, and later in the Federal Ministry of Economics. He stayed there even after Rösler and the FDP left the government, then worked for the SPD Economics Minister Sigmar Gabriel. In the FDP he not only made friends with it.
Kapferer later moved to the OECD as Secretary General. So he also knows international politics, which is important for a finance minister, Lindner, who also has to take care of Ecofin and the International Monetary Fund.
The question is whether Kapferer wants to go back into politics. Because he is now the head of the transmission system operator 50Hertz, where he makes investment decisions worth billions and also makes a very good profit himself.
If Kapferer is not available, the Ministry of Finance will also inform you about a return of Thomas Steffen speculated. He currently works as State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Health, but was previously more than six years under Wolfgang Schäuble (CDU) in the Ministry of Finance. He managed the euro crisis there, is very familiar with international financial policy and is well connected. However, he has a CDU party book. The question is whether Lindner would put a former Schäuble man on one of the most important posts in his department.
Also budget secretary Werner Gatzer As an SPD member, Lindner has the wrong party book. Nevertheless, the Ministry of Finance thinks it is quite possible that Gatzer will stay. Since 2005 he has been responsible for the federal budget as State Secretary – both under SPD and CDU ministers. There is no one who knows the household that well. And a lot of work awaits Lindner right from the start: In the first few months, a supplementary budget is needed for 2021, a new draft budget for 2022 and then benchmarks for 2023. Gatzer’s experience would be a great advantage for Lindner.
It is still unclear who will be responsible for tax policy as a permanent state secretary.
With the two parliamentary state secretaries, however, names are already circulating: The area of tax policy could Katja Hessel take over. The member of the Bundestag has been chairwoman of the finance committee in the Bundestag since the beginning of 2020 and was already State Secretary in the Bavarian Ministry of Economic Affairs.
As parliamentary state secretary for the budget Florian Toncar acted. Most recently, the FDP MP had made a name for himself in clearing up the Wirecard affair in the investigative committee. He is the financial policy spokesman for the FDP, but was also a member of the budget committee. Above all, Toncar enjoys Lindner’s trust.
Ministry of Economy: Experienced energy experts
Robert Habeck also needs top people for his new super ministry who suit him politically and at the same time have the necessary expertise. In view of the major challenges, especially in energy and climate policy, it is said that one cannot allow oneself to be stuck.
So it’s not surprising that a name comes up straight away: Rainer Baake. On the first day of work in the new ministry, Baake could put a detailed energy and climate policy timetable for the entire legislative period on the table. He developed this plan in his current position as head of the Climate Neutrality Foundation.
Baake is one of the fathers of the energy transition. In 1998, when he was in the first red-green federal government, he began to thread the nuclear phase-out, thereby gaining the respect of the energy companies. At that time he was State Secretary in the Ministry of the Environment. In the previous legislative period, Baake was State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Economics and carried out energy policy tasks for the then Minister Gabriel according to a meticulous schedule.
Baake, meanwhile 66 years old, sends a message through his foundation that he is not interested in becoming State Secretary again: “Mr. Baake is not applying for a public office,” said his spokesman. So you have to ask him first.
Patrick Graichen, a colleague of Baake’s, is also repeatedly named as a candidate for the post of State Secretary. Graichen leads – as Baake’s successor – the Agora Energiewende think tank, which, like Baake’s Climate Neutrality Foundation, continuously supplies the Greens with turnkey concepts for the implementation of the energy transition. The graduate economist was already a civil servant in the Ministry of the Environment under Baake. He therefore knows exactly what makes federal ministries tick. Habeck, who lacks this experience, could benefit from this.
Even Jochen Flasbarth, currently State Secretary in the Federal Environment Ministry, is one of the experienced fighters for climate protection. For Federal Environment Minister Svenja Schulze, he fought for the Climate Protection Act in the last legislative period and kept his colleagues in the Federal Ministry of Economics on their toes. Small blemish: Flasbarth is a member of the SPD.
Habeck, however, will not be able to rally a “club of the old men”. How good that there are capable women with energy industry expertise among the Greens: Ingrid Nestle has made a name for herself as a spokeswoman for the energy industry for the Green parliamentary group among Freund and Feind. From 2012 to 2017, the industrial engineer was State Secretary in the Schleswig-Holstein Ministry of Energy Transition. The minister at the time: Robert Habeck.
Habeck will also have to take care of the traditional departments of the Ministry of Economic Affairs. Could help him with that Katharina Dröge as State Secretary. The economist was the economic policy spokeswoman for the Green Group in the last legislature and has made a name for herself across party lines. The Green Economy Working Group has reported that new candidates are positioning themselves for the spokesperson’s post because Dröge has other plans.
More: The big traffic light check: What the coalition is up to and how economists assess it