In rubber boots on the Emscher, the SPD Labor Minister is close to the people.
Berlin Shortly before the summer vacation in Brandenburg, Hubertus Heil (SPD) is once again drawn to the distance. At the meeting with his G20 counterparts in India this week, the Labor Minister also wants to recruit skilled workers.
Together with Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD), Heil got the migration reform through the Bundestag relatively smoothly – in contrast to many other traffic light projects. Salvation is, if you will, the government’s silent worker who is working through the coalition agreement piece by piece.
On the list that his department recently sent out as proof of work, 23 central projects have a green tick for “done” – from the minimum wage to the first pension package, the skilled labor strategy or the promotion of an inclusive labor market to citizen’s income or the further training law.
Governing is not always fun at the moment. Publicly, Heil hasn’t said a bad word about the coalition partners, but internally he lets it be known that he considers the last six months of the traffic light a disaster in terms of communication, for example in the dispute over the heating law.
The minister prefers to avoid conflicts. In the last government under Chancellor Angela Merkel, Economics Minister Peter Altmaier (CDU) was still the walking mediation committee, but Scholz Heil takes on the role of moderator in the cabinet.
For a long time, Heil also associated Altmaier with a few kilos too much on his hips, both of whom liked to flirt with their weight in the old government. In the meantime, however, the Minister of Labor has slimmed down considerably with discipline.
Heil is on a first-name basis at Evonik and is standing in the Emscher in rubber boots
Despite all the routine that comes with a quarter of a century of active politics, the 50-year-old has stayed close to the people. This can also be observed on his summer trip, which he undertook to the Ruhr area this year.
At the Marl Chemical Park, Evonik Labor Director Thomas Wessel is familiar with the prominent guest. The minister in rubber boots plants a few aquatic plants on the Emscher, the former cesspool of the Ruhr area. In Dortmund he talks to former long-term unemployed people as if he had worked in the job center for years.
Read more about the Department of Labor
What should never be missing from his conversations are stories from Heil’s homeland and the constituency of Gifhorn-Peine. “My heart opened up a bit today as Labor Minister,” he says, for example, during a visit to the automotive supplier Bleistahl in Wetter an der Ruhr. The company grew up with valve seat inserts and is preparing for the post-combustion engine era with new products such as brake discs for electric bicycles. The labor minister complains that the automotive supplier Conti was unfortunately less creative and is closing its plant in Gifhorn.
Heil finds that political debates are currently not revolving enough around material things that move people.
The Minister of Labor is popular with the citizens, only Defense Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD) and Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock achieve even better satisfaction ratings in surveys.
But Heil’s popularity is of little use to the chancellor party, the SPD is under 20 percent in the polls, even though core social democratic projects such as citizens’ income and the higher minimum wage have long been implemented. And the AfD is collecting more and more approval without doing anything of its own.
Only once during the summer trip did Heil allow himself a dig at the Greens and the FDP. When he wants to try out a bicycle at Bleistahl, but it’s chained up, he says: “It’s like in the coalition – some want to start, others want to brake.”
Internally, the minister reveals what he thinks of the chaos surrounding the heating law.
(Photo: IMAGO/Political Moments)
But the minister really doesn’t feel like laughing given the partly poisoned political climate. For his liking, there are far too many and often irreconcilable arguments about lifestyles or gender and far too little about material issues that move people.
When it comes to pensions, Heil is closer to the FDP than to the Greens
This includes, for example, pensions. Heil intends to present the second pension package shortly, which will contain not only the stabilization of the pension level but also the stock pension. On this issue, the Labor Minister is now closer to the Liberals and Finance Minister Christian Lindner than to the Green coalition partner.
>> Read here: Greens: Stock pension could violate the Basic Law
However, he also knows that in social policy after the generous Corona years and the inflation compensation packages, money can no longer be spent so freely. Heil had to save 1.5 billion euros from the 9 billion euros that were not firmly committed in his 172 billion euros budget for the coming year.
After his return from India and before the next projects such as the Employee Data Protection Act or the Federal Collective Bargaining Act, Heil will first relax with his family in Brandenburg. The two new family members, two young cats, will also be there for the first time.
Perhaps the minister should share photos of it on social media. As is well known, cat photos have never harmed popularity.
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