Michael Busch was SPD district administrator in Coburg for more than ten years, and re-election would have been likely. But Busch did what many established SPD local politicians are demanding: he moved to the state parliament in 2018 – and suffered a bad shipwreck there. Either He left both the party and the parliamentary group. A review talk.
Mr. Busch, successful SPD local politicians are often asked whether they shouldn’t even leave their chair for the state parliament in order to possibly lead their party out of the vale of tears of perpetual opposition. You did exactly that, you were a district administrator, applied for a mandate and were elected to the state parliament. The result is a shambles. A fatal sign – right?
Michael Bush: Of course, you could see that as a signal for all those who have toyed with this idea. I can only say: Before 2018, I was encouraged by many to take this step into the state parliament. And I took the risk – in the knowledge that it would not be a sure-fire success, not even for someone who was elected district administrator in 2014 with more than 60 percent of the votes, with a majority in all 17 Coburg district municipalities. With 23 percent in the state elections, I was well above the SPD average, but also far away from the direct mandate.
So a first disillusionment.
A small one, but I was still in good spirits to achieve my goal: to change politics in the state parliament in favor of local political interests. As a successful local politician, you can pose for a photo at the SPD parliamentary group exams, but you really don’t have anything to say.
Now you could have helped to make it better.
In fact, I was already alienated right after the state elections. I already posted how strange I find it that the SPD immediately rejects any participation in the government, without being able to say anything about it as a recently elected member of parliament. Looking back, I have to say: I endured it for four years rather than supported it.
Again: That should be a fatal sign for your former party, the SPD.
Well, it’s certainly a signal: You have to think about a step like this very carefully.
What is, or rather was, so bad?
As a district administrator, I have always worked in a team-oriented manner – and I could not have imagined that it could take five hours just to elect a faction leader. Right from the first session, unbelievable! Then there was the announcement by the SPD party leadership that they would not negotiate about participation in the government. I was a district administrator before, that’s an affront to those who elected me. I should say to them: I’m giving up my position as district administrator, but I don’t want to govern in Bavaria! In addition, I had to realize that the split parliamentary group – which voted eleven to eleven several times in the first session – was not able to process the state parliament result of 9.7 percent. In terms of style, the exams corresponded to frontal teaching, with experts from their own juice confirming the SPD theses.
Isn’t that the job of MPs to change something like that?
I made suggestions, even offered a coach – but the faction exams always stayed exactly the same as they were when I was still taking part as a district administrator. The attitude seemed to me to be: Aha, here comes a successful district administrator who wants to show us how to do it properly.
Have you regretted your candidacy for state parliament?
Yes, I regretted this step. And now I often hear: Well, we told you that before.
In fact, one could have known that district administrator and SPD deputy in Bavaria are two completely different things. Were you naive?
I knew, of course, that one is not comparable to the other. I couldn’t imagine that it was that bad, but I have to admit that I hadn’t really dealt with parliamentary processes before – I have to be blamed for that. Just one example: At the municipal level, an emergency application is something that cannot be postponed. In the state parliament it is a ritual, a proof of work for MPs with no chance of success, exclusively time-consuming, a single show.
Even if it were – you will only change it in this system.
I also tried for four years – and observed that long-standing MPs no longer have the drive to want to change things like that.
Have you failed?
Yes, I failed, no ifs or buts. But I really believed I could change something.
Many are now aware of this, the failure of an ex-SPD district administrator. You are 65. Couldn’t you have endured the last year before the election?
The question is justified, I ended up asking myself it almost every hour. But there were too many drops that broke the camel’s back. And you could say of everyone: Come on, it’s not that bad. I could just enumerate umpteen applications that have only been made for the sake of the application. Not to mention the impression that we are now primarily making politics for smaller minorities.
Is your step also at the top of the parliamentary group?
A faction that is so divided from the start is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to lead.
Your father was in the SPD for 75 years, you for 43 years. That too is over now.
I was no longer satisfied with many things at the federal level. Compared to my experiences in the parliamentary group, however, that is of secondary importance. I’m sure: my father, if he were still alive, would completely agree with my step.
It would have been logical to also return the mandate.
One may see it that way. But I can still represent the interests of the people from my constituency in the state parliament, if only because of my network. The party hasn’t helped either. And I didn’t want to put my employees on the street a year before the election either.
Do you have a clear conscience? In other words, do you sleep well?
I didn’t sleep at all the nights before and after my decision. But yes, I have a clear conscience. My step was inevitable, outside of the party I almost only get approval for it. I am convinced that parliamentary work must change. Exactly how, I will think about it in the remaining months in the state parliament.