The debate about citizens’ income makes one think of the wrangling over the red-green tax reform of 2000. Friedrich Merz experienced a debacle at the time.
At first glance, everything looks like democratic routine: The traffic light is arguing with the CDU and CSU about citizen money. The factions of the coalition have the majority in the Bundestag, but need votes in the Bundesrat from countries in which the Union sits in government. Now the mediation committee is to resolve the conflict. What sounds like a normal parliamentary procedure has a remarkable personal component in this case.