Berlin Karl Lauterbach is in the SPD party headquarters, he has his hands buried in his trouser pockets. He taps up and down a bit – as if he could hardly wait to go on stage, where Olaf Scholz is about to introduce the seven SPD ministers.
Lauterbach always wanted to be, and now he is allowed to: The SPD health expert will be the new health minister of the future traffic light coalition. The 58-year-old takes on the post of currently most important crisis manager in the cabinet of future Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
The corona pandemic is “far from over,” said Scholz at the presentation of the SPD ministers. Most citizens would have therefore wished that the next health minister would be a specialist and that his name was Karl Lauterbach, said Scholz. “He will.”
Lauterbach will now largely determine how well Germany gets through the pandemic, by which the future Chancellor Scholz will also have to be measured. The most difficult office of the future traffic light coalition is waiting for Lauterbach.
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Lauterbach was confident of pushing back the corona pandemic. It will take longer than many thought. “But we will manage it. Vaccination will play the central role, but not only. We will win the fight against the pandemic and we will be better equipped for further pandemics. “
Even if Lauterbach has been acting as health minister for a long time, Scholz caused a surprise with the change on Monday.
What speaks in favor of Lauterbach is that he does not have to spend a long time familiarizing himself, but is also not allowed to: The urgency of the corona crisis does not tolerate the otherwise usual grace period. Since the beginning of the pandemic, the epidemiologist has acted as a corona declarer and admonisher, campaigning in public for the often controversial measures of the grand coalition with detailed study knowledge and his sober manner. Lauterbach had to accept a lot of hostility in the social networks for this – he received police protection – however, he also got a lot of recognition.
The decision should not have been easy for Scholz, according to SPD circles. The Saxon Health Minister Petra Köpping and the health policy spokeswoman for the SPD parliamentary group, Sabine Dittmar, were also in discussion as candidates.
Lauterbach has not had an easy position in the party since his candidacy for the SPD party chairmanship in 2019. Back then, he relentlessly railed against the grand coalition and thus against the party leadership – and against Scholz.
Many in the SPD also consider Lauterbauch to be unpredictable, are annoyed by his constant television appearances and have great doubts that Lauterbach will subordinate himself to the federal cabinet.
Lauterbach thus corresponded exactly to the type of politician that the future Chancellor Scholz trusts little and that he actually does not want to have in his environment. But Scholz jumped over his shadow. Or maybe he was being driven by public pressure.
SPD names ministers: Lauterbach takes over health
In parts of the population Lauterbach is extremely popular, people trusted him, is called in the SPD. At the same time, nobody is as familiar with health policy and the corona crisis as Lauterbach. Before his time in politics, the professor for health economics was in Cologne. At night and in his free time, he devours studies, which he then explains to the citizens in simple words the next day.
Lauterbach also lives a healthy life in his private life and has for years completely refrained from using salt and sugar, which, however, also annoys his party friends when he admonishes them at buffets when filling plates, what they are shoveling into themselves.
The height of fall for the new health minister is high. In recent years, Lauterbach has made everyone feel that they consider themselves the best health minister. He now has to deliver from day one.
Lauterbach takes over the office at a time when the situation in hospitals is dramatic in many places – and the next worsening of the situation is heralding with the Omikron variant. At the Prime Minister’s Conference on Thursday, the future minister can expect the first practical test.
Lauterbach on “Anne Will”: The state must not allow itself to be blackmailed
It is true that the heads of government are in the front row at the federal-state meetings. However, the health minister is called upon to deal with key issues, such as the procurement of vaccines and tests, which are currently scarce to the displeasure of the country leaders. Lauterbach also expects difficult questions with the general compulsory vaccination, which is desired by the majority of the population and also desired, but is controversial among the traffic light parties. And the next logistical challenge awaits Lauterbach with the child vaccinations starting in December.
The population received an impression of him as Minister of Health from Anne Will on Sunday. “We are now really vaccinating against time,” warned Lauterbach in a familiar way. He sees that the omicron variant is establishing itself faster than expected. With a view to the increasing anger in parts of the population – for example against compulsory vaccination – he said: “The state must not allow itself to be blackmailed.”
When Lauterbach was with Anne Will, he already knew that he was going to be Minister of Health. Many comrades only switched on the program to see whether Lauterbach really didn’t show anything.
There was advance praise from Bavaria’s Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU), who said on the program that he would welcome Lauterbach as Minister of Health. He has a “basic compass” and does not have to spend a long time familiarizing himself with it. He appreciates and respects Lauterbach, and people are often of the same opinion.
However, the post is also an ejector seat. Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) wanted the outgoing Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU) to politically sideline the office when she assigned him to the ministry.
In the meantime, Spahn has become one of the most popular politicians in the country during the corona crisis. The political capital has now been used up, Spahn has no prospect of an influential post in the Union. So Lauterbach knows what he’s getting into.
Spahn leaves him empty coffers
The office is not considered glamorous. Whoever takes it over has to grapple with powerful lobby associations of pharmacists, doctors, hospitals, health insurance companies and other areas of the health care system, which often work against one another and block reforms.
Spahn resolved the reluctance with a healthy dose of energy and a lot of money. The CDU politician set the pace especially in digitization. The electronic patient record, which has been in law for years, is now actually being rolled out.
But still-Minister Spahn, Lauterbach also leaves empty coffers in the statutory health and long-term care insurance, a patchy care reform and a ramshackle hospital landscape. The traffic light wants to counteract this with some far-reaching reforms that the SPD politician has to implement.
Higher wages in nursing, a more efficient clinic landscape and better outpatient care are just a few of the projects that the traffic light parties have undertaken. “We will not have any reductions in benefits,” said Lauterbach when he was introduced. “On the contrary, we will strengthen the health system.”
More: SPD introduces ministers: Karl Lauterbach is to become health minister, Nancy Faeser becomes interior minister