In its advance announcement, the SPD parliamentary group makes no secret of the intention that is also behind this state parliament debate. The plenary session on Tuesday will be about the “stimulator of crafts”. With the demonstrative mention that the Social Democrats have been chaired by a master craftsman for a good three months: Holger Grießhammer, a master painter and varnisher with his own business in Upper Franconia. One founded, not one inherited, as he himself likes to emphasize. The group said he knew the challenges and problems first hand. Well then, Grießhammer appears in the plenary hall for the debate format of a current hour requested by the SPD.
When he was elected boss in the summer, Grießhammer had already announced that he wanted to contribute his professional perspective to the future course of the Socialists: more into the middle of society, a policy “for the hard-working”, for those “who support themselves care for”. In other words: The new parliamentary group leader intends to shed the SPD’s aura of slowly but surely becoming the party for remaining supporters in the public service and also for benefit recipients of all kinds.
Grießhammer explains in the plenary session that there is an acute need for action in the craft sector – with a view to the shortage of skilled workers, bureaucracy and weak demand. For example, he is calling for a succession bonus to make business takeovers easier. “We have to prevent companies from closing because the boss is retiring and there is no successor.” Other suggestions include equipping training centers with the latest technology, qualification programs for career changers or an image campaign to get young people interested in skilled trades ; especially in the food trade in bakeries and butchers. According to Grießhammer, these are “not utopian ideas”, but rather easy-to-implement improvements. To achieve this, the state government must do more, including financially. The SPD, on the other hand, is clearly on the side of the trades.
Of course, the SPD does not only claim the role of expert in craftsmanship. The CSU and Free Voters see this task in a classic way; just recently, after a top-level meeting with the chambers, Prime Minister Markus Söder announced that Bavaria was – what else – “number one craft country”. The Greens are by no means unfamiliar with the craft, and even a state party conference in 2022 was under the topic. It was said that craftsmen and women alone are crucial as designers of the energy transition; after all, they screw photovoltaic systems onto roofs or insulate houses. The AfD also stands out as an advocate for the hands-on people, usually in contrast to alleged left-wing idlers. Grießhammer’s proposal does not remain without contradiction.
The other factions attack the SPD’s federal policy
Martin Wagle (CSU) says, “Crafts are undoubtedly the heart of the Bavarian economy”. However, the accusation of inadequate funding is not correct. Crafts also play a central role in de-bureaucratization, as Söder tackled in his government declaration this year, and in “unleashing the economy”. According to Wagle, he has to rub his eyes that the SPD in particular is applying for this current hour. The party stands “more for the redistribution” of what top performers in this country earn – just think of the “billion-dollar disaster of citizens’ money”. Markus Striedl (AfD) complains about the debate on the SPD proposal: This would be as if the Greens wanted to talk about a return to nuclear energy.
Hubert Aiwanger (FW) also speaks in the state parliament as Economics Minister. He assures us that we are doing a lot to advance things in the craft sector. The biggest construction site, however, is federal policy, in which he sees hostility to performance and property. Grießhammer’s group should please pass this on to the traffic light in Berlin. Nevertheless, he is pleased that the SPD is raising the issue – it is a sign of a Christian attitude that “every lost sheep” is allowed to return to the flock.
Clear support for the SPD comes from the Greens. Barbara Fuchs is annoyed by the malice when the SPD focuses on such an elementary issue. Your Green parliamentary group colleague Andreas Birzele, a master carpenter by profession, reminds you that crafts in Bavaria make up 17 percent of the companies, but 30 percent of the training places. There is enormous potential here for the active integration of people with a migration background. Without the craftsmen, says Birzele, everyone in the country would be “destroyed”. High German: really in trouble. At least that is a sentence that everyone can agree on.