The traffic light government actually wanted to work together in a spirit of trust. Now she gets lost in the chaos.
(Photo: IMAGO/photo booth)
Yes, we are here in the football stadium!” shouted the Federal Minister for Economic Affairs, Robert Habeck, in the Bundestag recently. The outburst of anger followed a short and clear demand from the opposition: “The gas surcharge must go!” However, the CDU is not currently acting as if it were on the football field, but the traffic light coalition itself.
While citizens and companies are fighting for their existence because of the energy shock, a different traffic light politician is bawling from every corner about what to do or not to do now. Whether it’s the botch in the gas levy, the open financing of the gas price cap or the bickering over the relief packages: the traffic light is currently a prime example of a chaos coalition. If she continues like this, the government will plunge into a crisis of confidence and the country deeper and deeper into an economic crisis.
The traffic light wanted to do everything differently. Instead of arguing, she wanted to work together in a spirit of trust. Instead of an ad hoc policy, she wanted to follow a script.
But in the end there was nothing to see. Anyone who knows Olaf Scholz had clear expectations when he took office as chancellor: his policies would be level-headed, but also hesitant. But he will master the political craft.
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But the gas levy was already poorly designed in terms of craftsmanship before it died quickly. The fact that the economics and finance ministers argued for days before it ended as to whether the levy would come or not cost both Habeck and Christian Lindner confidence.
Instead of the levy, a gas price brake should now be put in place. But nobody knows how the gas price brake should be financed without suspending the debt brake. In the end, the traffic light will get the billions from somewhere with a dubious interpretation of the debt brake.
Habeck railed against “must go” opposition
But then what? Is a third relief package even necessary? Some countries say no. But even there the traffic light is already further ahead, especially the Greens: Even before the third has been negotiated with the federal states, they are already calling for a fourth relief package. There is no better way to badmouth your own politics.
Traffic light representatives refer to the rapidly changing situation, which the coalition is faced with difficult decisions. But that’s not even half the truth. It has been clear for weeks that the gas supplier Uniper needs more state aid and that the surcharge could falter.
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The real causes of the chaos are different: the traffic light decided on its three relief packages before the slide, a time horizon of perhaps two months. However, it would be more correct to anticipate the next two years. But then the traffic light would have had to make unpleasant decisions. The coalition committee last sat together for 20 hours.
But because they did not know how to proceed, the coalition set up a working group. Now a gas expert commission is to present proposals for crisis management. But even then, the question of what the replacement for the bridging technology gas should be remains unanswered.
But the coalition will have to die one death: either it uses its own domestic gas reserves or it extends the use of nuclear power. Best of all, she does both. In any case, imported liquid gas alone will not be enough.
The chancellor is currently traveling a lot in the world – so a lot of distance to the quarrels in his coalition. But a presidential style of leadership is not appropriate at this time of increasingly precarious economic conditions. If the chancellor has to make use of his directive authority – then now.
More: Prime Minister Weil: “The energy crisis will be significantly more expensive for the state than Corona”