When Karlsruhe threw the traffic light budget overboard, I experienced hectic rulers – and tried to keep up with events that were constantly overtaking one another. A little look behind the scenes.
Making-of – that’s the name of our new format on stern.de. We want to give you a personal look behind the scenes, tell us about our everyday journalistic life, what we experience during research and what motivates us in the editorial team. We’re starting a little series looking back at our moments in 2023.
When I watch this year go by again in my mind’s eye, I sometimes think about the ticker messages. A brief summary since the summer: +++ July 5th: Karlsruhe stops discussing the heating law +++ July 6th: AfD reaches a new high of 20 percent +++ August 6th: Family Minister Paus blocks Finance Minister Lindner’s tax plans ++ + August 31st: Support for traffic lights at a new low +++ September 26th: Greens and FDP argue about migration +++ October 8th: SPD clap in the Hesse election +++ October 20th: Chancellor calls for “deportations on a large scale” +++ November 9th: FDP membership decision wants to end traffic lights +++
Then came the bang from Karlsruhe – and with it the next shock for a coalition that has been governing in crisis mode practically since its inception. November 15: The Constitutional Court throws out the traffic light’s budget plans. Rumms.
I and a few other journalists were sitting at Katja Mast’s press breakfast when the breaking news flashed across the news ticker. The SPD parliamentary group manager regularly invites people to the Marie Juchacz Hall in the Bundestag to provide information about current plenary topics. But Mast wasn’t the only one whose thoughts were elsewhere from 10:06 a.m., the moment of the bang.
What consequences will the verdict have? About the budget, which should be decided soon? And for the unequal coalition partners who liked to solve their differences with money?
Although I have only been reporting on the so-called political business from Berlin since June, I have already experienced some disruptions in the traffic light coalition’s operations. But this Wednesday was different. Hectic. More dramatic. More exciting, at least as a journalist. After all, the coalition’s budget tricks – which made the ambitious and contradictory traffic light projects financially possible – were fundamentally rejected by the Constitutional Court.
Do you speak Berlin Bubble?
So I tried to keep up with events that were constantly overtaking each other. While SPD parliamentary group manager Mast bravely presented the plenary topics, I picked up my cell phone and sent a few text messages. What’s going on there? Many traffic light politicians didn’t know the answer to this themselves; the impact of the Karlsruhe judge’s ruling was difficult to predict at the time – probably also because many had not expected the far-reaching verdict. Or wanted to calculate.
I noticed something while texting: the more hectic the situation, the shorter the text messages. For many politicians they are the preferred means of communication. It fits her rhythm. Politicians move through the day at a crazy pace, driven by the speed of events, debate and news. In other words: There is usually no time for more than a short text. Especially on chaotic days like this, when every minute counts. The result is a language of its own that is spoken in the Berlin bubble.
People speak in the “HG” (background) in order to discuss this or that issue more openly. Quoting from this form of exchange is not permitted. One wonders what the “GS” (General Secretary) or “PV” (party leader) will say, be it from the “WBH” (Willy Brandt House, the SPD party headquarters) or “KAH” (Konrad-Adenauer- House, the CDU counterpart). And when will the “BK” (Chancellor) give a “PK” (press conference)? LG!
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Back to the “BT”, i.e. Bundestag. After the press breakfast at Katja Mast’s, I rushed a few floors down to the press box in the plenary hall. Chancellor Olaf Scholz was expected to take part in the government survey. A press conference was scheduled to take place in the Chancellery shortly beforehand. I watched the joint statement from Scholz, Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck and Finance Minister Christian Lindner in the live stream at 12.45 p.m. At 1 p.m. sharp, the traffic lights went up under the glass dome of the Reichstag. There are only a few hundred meters between the Chancellery and the Bundestag. Still, it’s a mystery to me how they did it.
Under and over the linden trees
Everything had to happen quickly that day. Habeck and Lindner were also diligently hacking into their cell phones – crisis communication – while Scholz probably answered somewhat reluctantly to seemingly banal questions after his budget management was declared unconstitutional. After all, it was a government survey, every MP can ask questions on any topic. Afterwards, the vast majority of the government bench rushed out of the plenary session. I also quickly changed the scene and drove back to the fourth floor of the Bundestag.
At the so-called parliamentary group level are the meeting rooms in which the Bundestag factions deliberate (and were called for evening crisis meetings that day). In front of the parliamentary group halls there are press walls in the respective party design. There the “FV” (party leaders) stand in front of the microphones and cameras to convey their view of things – an interpretation of events that is certainly party-politically colored – to the broader media public.
The leaders of the CDU (Friedrich Merz) and CSU (Alexander Dobrindt) opened the battle for interpretative sovereignty, quite triumphantly. After all, the Union had sued in Karlsruhe against the traffic light’s budget tricks – and successfully. Shortly afterwards, Christian Dürr from the FDP followed as the first representative of a traffic light faction. He didn’t allow any questions, as did the coalition leaders in the Chancellery. What else was he supposed to say? Answers to many questions were still missing.
That day I saw hectic rulers who had practically no idea what to do next. I rushed through a day with them in which nothing was normal, even less than usual. Read the Chaos Protocol here. Will it remain an exception?
+++ November 22nd: Traffic light postpones the decision of the 2024 budget +++ November 30th: The traffic light cannot find a way out of the budget crisis +++ December 3rd: Robert Habeck cancels trip to the COP 28 climate conference +++ December 13th : Traffic light coalition comes to agreement after night meeting +++ December 18th: The traffic light savings plan is faltering +++
That could be something next year.