report
Boom region, but high approval ratings for the AfD: East Germany’s future is considered uncertain by some. The federal government is trying to counteract this before the 2024 elections – and is primarily strengthening the established ones.
The scenarios could hardly be more different: in 2030, the prosperity of Germany and Europe could be secured in East Germany with microchips from Magdeburg and Dresden. Or the AfD could co-govern in several federal states. Or maybe both? This is how the tension at a conference called “East Germany 2030” that the federal government organized in Leipzig on Friday can be described.
Meeting of elite and top politicians
The Federal Government’s Eastern Commissioner, Carsten Schneider, invited. The SPD politician from Erfurt has been in office for two years and wants one thing above all: “a new look at East Germany.” The East should get away from the negative headlines about alleged and actual losers of the change, AfD successes and emigration.
The event in a former coal-fired power plant in the west of Leipzig also serves this purpose. Schneider does not present a vision of the future, an “Agenda 2030 East” to the over 300 hand-picked guests. But in addition to university rectors, top municipal representatives, IHK board members and artists, four of six heads of government in the East also came – and Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD).
Scholz makes promises for Intel funding
The event is under the impression of Wednesday. The Federal Constitutional Court ruled that 60 billion euros were wrongly put into the federal climate and transformation fund. The problem: Part of the total 15 billion euros that the federal government wants to make available to the chip giants Intel and TSMC for their new factories in Magdeburg and Dresden will also come from the pot.
The two settlements – together with the existing Tesla factory in Grünheide, Brandenburg – are intended to push East Germany to the forefront of economic development. This promise now seems to be shaky.
The Prime Ministers of Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt, Michael Kretschmer and Reiner Haseloff (both CDU), were surprised by the verdict while on a trip to Brussels. However, Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) is said to have given a guarantee for the funding before he appeared in front of the press with the Chancellor and Finance Minister. That’s how it’s told. Habeck then said publicly: “All promises made will be kept.”
In Leipzig, the Chancellor is now also committed to the funding. “I absolutely want these investments to take place in eastern Germany. In Magdeburg, in Dresden,” says Scholz. It remains unclear where the money will come from.
On this day, Scholz promises the business representatives in the room more bureaucracy reduction, a faster energy transition and “doing everything” to secure jobs. There are no questions.
Eastern Representative Schneider: Elections will be crucial
Formats like this conference are not without controversy. One criticism is that it is not publicly accessible and has no broad impact. People without office or function were left out. But the Chancellor and the Eastern Representative as well as some Prime Ministers regularly hold discussions with citizens.
And events like in Leipzig have a different function. Volunteers, business representatives, local politicians – they should all be kept in line – or in the words of the Görlitz novelist Lukas Rietzschel: “Those who are still there should stay.”
“Networking,” is what one participant calls today’s event – “getting involved with the army,” another. Saxony-Anhalt’s Prime Minister Haseloff calls them “multipliers” for democracy in his speech.
It has been said several times that people should stand for the 2024 elections. The Eastern Commissioner himself says of the upcoming local, European and three state elections: “Next year will be about nothing less than the future of East Germany, Germany and Europe.”
AfD is an issue – but remains outside of it
What this means is that the AfD, which is partly right-wing extremist, should be kept away from power in Brandenburg, Saxony and Thuringia. It is not intended to become the strongest force – where it stands in surveys in the east, unlike in the west of Germany, where it is also strong.
The name of the party is rarely mentioned; instead, “the right-wing extremists” are often mentioned. Chancellor Scholz says that the pressing political questions must be solved. At the same time, however, there can be “no one who can say: I’m feeling bad, that’s why I’m a right-wing extremist.” Representatives of the AfD itself are not on site in Leipzig.
Does it need one? Residence requirement for Officials?
It rarely becomes controversial. There was a murmur in the room when the journalist Sabine Rennefanz suggested that people who work in federal institutions in cities like Cottbus or Rostock should also be required to live there – instead of commuting from Berlin, Leipzig or West Germany, as many still do.
Opinions also differ on the question of an “Eastern quota”. Rennefanz and others are for it. An entrepreneur born in East Germany speaks out against it on the hall microphone. Chancellor Scholz wants to further increase the number of East Germans in leadership positions without quotas.
The suggestion by the Görlitz novelist Rietzschel to draw lots for local parliaments in the future in order to improve representation, however, only elicits cautious clapping.
On the wall of the Chancellor is immortalized the question of what democracy is.
Scholz on democracy
The “House of the Weimar Republic” association has set up a white board in the lobby. “Democracy is…” it says. Beneath it, someone wrote with a marker: “… if you are allowed to say that you are not allowed to say anything more.” Another allusion to the AfD.
Top politicians also immortalize themselves on the wall. For Chancellor Scholz, democracy is “… when all citizens see democracy as their own concern.” He had already made it clear beforehand that the often invoked civil society “is all of us.” It will be seen in autumn 2024 whether this message will also make it out of the old power plant halls.