Status: 04.07.2021 5:46 p.m.
Federal President Steinmeier sees the future federal government facing major challenges. On ZDF, he warned not to let the election campaign degenerate into a mud fight – and to take people along with changes.
In view of the enormous need for political and social change in the fight against climate change, Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier is convinced that the future German government has an immense responsibility. “It takes a lot of courage for those who take on government responsibility after September,” said Steinmeier in an interview with the ZDF program “Berlin direkt”, which will be broadcast on Sunday evening.
With a view to climate protection in particular, he said: “We will have to change a lot.” At the same time, he referred to challenges such as coping with the consequences of the global corona pandemic and the dynamically advancing digitization. Taken together, these developments represented a formidable challenge that encompassed all areas.
“Transformation of Society”
The goal of climate neutrality, for example, requires nothing less than a “transformation of society,” said the Federal President. All sectors of society are affected, from housing and construction to mobility to schools and agriculture. The dynamics of change will be enormous. “We underestimate all of that, I think,” he added.
Steinmeier also warned politicians against overburdening society. Successful climate protection policy must move in a “strategic triangle” of effective climate protection, a functioning economy and social cohesion. Within this constellation, “the decisive course” must be set on the way to climate neutrality, “without losing society on this path,” emphasized the Federal President.
Steinmeier does not want to warn publicly yet
With reference to the Bundestag election campaign, Steinmeier called on the parties in the Bundestag election campaign to “measure and reason”. He knew that the climate in election campaigns is harsher than outside of election campaigns, he said when asked whether one was on the way to a mud fight in the election campaign. “I am worried that it could turn into a mud fight. At the moment, I believe that it is not yet the point at which the Federal President has to publicly issue a warning.”
When asked whether he would do that, Steinmeier said. “I think people know that about me.” He said often enough that a prerequisite for a functioning democracy was “that one should exercise moderation and reason, and that also applies in election campaigns”.
The parties have to be reminded again and again that in the German democracy, which is dependent on coalitions, every word and sentence has to be remembered that one may have to sit together at the table afterwards and bear joint responsibility, said Steinmeier.
The background is, on the one hand, attacks on the Green Chancellor candidate Annalena Baerbock, among other things because of allegations of plagiarism. On the other hand, the Greens parliamentary group vice-president Oliver Krischer had given the Union’s candidate for chancellor, Armin Laschet, joint responsibility for the heat deaths in Canada.
Mixed balance of the corona policy
As far as the German corona policy is concerned, Steinmeier drew a mixed balance. “We are certainly not world champions when it comes to fighting pandemics, but we are certainly not last in class either.” He positively emphasized that the first vaccine was developed in Germany. Likewise, that the health system has held up and unemployment has not increased significantly. “I think politics didn’t fail.”
Hike in the Harz Mountains
Steinmeier also continued his hike along the former inner-German border. Under the motto “# step-for-step”, the President wants to find out about people’s experiences in the pandemic.
He called on the Germans not to be divided by the discussions about the corona policy. “There were times when we were not only forced to distance ourselves by hygiene rules, but there were also times when we moved a little apart because of these debates,” said Steinmeier in the Harz region. Hopefully Germany will now come out of the crisis step by step and move towards each other again in the process.