Editorial
Stern Editor-in-Chief
“Merz must finally become a professional” – Gregor Peter Schmitz on the current stern title
The current star title: Friedrich Merz
© star
Editor-in-Chief Gregor Peter Schmitz takes a look at the new starmagazine and talks about Friedrich Merz and his fight for the top.
Because of all these skills, Joachim-Friedrich Martin Josef Merz, 67, is a respected, even admired figure in the Union, especially on its conservative wing. He can bring a hall full of like-minded men to a boil (he usually does not reach like-minded women very well). This is how Merz consoled himself through the Merkel years, which were so bitter for him, when he often tinkered through the republic as a political lecture artist.
During these jubilant performances, he may have forgotten that the leader of a people’s party shouldn’t just take a manageable section of the people with him – and that he scares off many others if he argues improperly and remains unclear. Merz, who likes to present himself as a professional, seems surprisingly amateurish in communication. I remember him playing in Bavaria a few years ago. At that time he received thunderous applause for many statements. But the only headline that stuck was that Merz called climate activist Greta Thunberg “sick”.
Chancellor without an alternative?
A pattern can be discerned: Merz initiates necessary discussions, for example on migration policy or on the subject of whether you have to be absolutely poor to be a good politician. But when he then speaks of “little pashas” or classifies himself as “upper middle class” – despite a private jet and a salary in the millions at the time – the outrage about it stifles any debate. Just like how to deal with the AfD.
You shouldn’t write off Merz, though. Because of his ability to suffer as described above. But also because he came to the top to keep the right fringe of the CDU in the party. Who else is supposed to do this? NRW Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst, who stages himself as a dream son-in-law? Daniel Günther from Schleswig-Holstein, who emphasizes closeness to the people through cheerful public singing? Or is it CSU boss Markus Söder, whom the CDU never wanted to call again? Perhaps Friedrich Merz, with all his weaknesses, is systemically relevant for the Union and its cohesion. But then he must finally become a professional in every respect.
However, we do not have to discuss the fact that outdoor pools are systemically important in Germany. My colleague Jana Luck and my colleague Moritz Herrmann therefore quote at the beginning of their text whether chaos is reigning again at the edge of the pool, none other than Theodor Adorno. The research duo also looked into the question of how self-confident outdoor pool managers (“a man like a Speedo: small but striking”) can still ensure law and order today. Or whether both are not so threatened by some outdoor pool thugs that we need quick swimming pool procedures, as demanded by CDU General Secretary Carsten Linnemann. It’s a question that should outlast the summer slump.