Prime Minister Haseloff: Voice of the East

Starting today, Reiner Haseloff is to lead Saxony-Anhalt’s first coalition of CDU, SPD and FDP. With New Minister Schulze, he has a strong man behind him. But he still has to find his own role.

“Reiner Haseloff is someone who always wants to do everything right.” A long-time companion speaks about the old and probably new Prime Minister of Saxony-Anhalt. If Haseloff was to be elected Prime Minister for the third time today in the Magdeburg state parliament, of which there is no doubt, then he has done quite a lot right. Above all, he survived politically.

Haseloff’s successor

It was in December 2020, in the weeks of the radio dispute, when Haseloff, who was approaching retirement and who appeared strangely unconcerned, shot his last cartridge: He dismissed his designated successor, Interior Minister and party chairman Holger Stahlknecht. He had previously brought a possible AfD-tolerated CDU minority government into play without Haseloff’s consent. Stahlknecht’s resignation was a hit.

The black-red-green coalition held. Six months later, the CDU clearly distanced the AfD and all other parties in the state elections. The party got 37.1 percent of the vote. That was CSU level and was far above what the Union can hope for in the general election according to surveys. She owed this to Haseloff, who is now 67 years old.

The studied physicist and former director of an employment agency, who can regularly drive journalists to despair with neat sentences and the smallest details, had long struggled with the role of the country’s father. In the end he accepted it and had a poster with his wife Gabriele. His enormous popularity and his clear no to the AfD brought victory: The CDU mobilized among older non-voters and even in the left-wing camp.

Schulze has to prove himself as a minister

During his first two terms as Prime Minister Haseloff had to switch to emergency mode several times: in the migration crisis, the corona pandemic. At the same time, his country was dragging along an educational misery and failures in digitization. Haseloff seems to have already settled at least one problem in addition to “the AfD issue”: his successor.

Five years ago, Haseloff is said to have announced to the party executive in Berlin that his state CDU would be ideally positioned for the future. In addition to Holger Stahlknecht, Finance Minister André Schröder and Education Minister Marco Tullner, all around 50 at the time, were on hold for the office of Prime Minister. Then Schröder’s own parliamentary group fell, Stahlknecht had to leave and Tullner lost support with the corona crisis at the latest.

From Haseloff’s shadow

Instead of the trio, Sven Schulze is now peering out of Haseloff’s shadow. Schulze, most recently Saxony-Anhalt’s only MEP, is well connected in Berlin, Brussels and in the media. Since the abrupt departure from Stahlknecht, he has been the new strong man of the state CDU and has led the coalition negotiations as state chairman. They were his first major test.

Schulze stands, at least outwardly, for a tone of equality favored by Haseloff. He managed to get both the SPD and FDP involved in a coalition for which the FDP would not have needed it in purely mathematical terms. And that both the Greens and the CDU were able to save face when saying goodbye to each other.

In terms of content, there is a little more of everything: more police, more teachers, more digitization, more climate protection. This is also known from older contracts. In places concrete data and figures are missing. In any case, what will be decisive will be what is actually implemented. And whether a planned, 1.5 billion euro package against the consequences of the Corona crisis is effective.

What vision?

Schulze himself becomes super minister and has chased away the important economic department from the SPD for this; with the backing of the Prime Minister. “Haseloff made it clear from the start that Schulze should be built up as his successor,” says someone who was present at all of the negotiations. The coming ministerial years will be Schulze’s second practical test.

Haseloff, on the other hand, has to find his role again. It is conceivable that he will continue where he started the two years before the election: as the sometimes grumpy voice of Eastern Germany, who grapples with Markus Lanz in front of an audience of millions and reminds people in the corona and climate discussion here everything was expected of upheavals. The exit from coal and the structural change in the south of Saxony-Anhalt will be one of the decision-making fields for Haseloffs and his new cabinet.

What other vision he has for “his” country is not yet entirely clear. A government declaration is not due to be issued until October. The opposition left already suspects that there could soon be major savings. They are agreed in the coalition agreement, without the CDU, SPD and FDP so far being able or willing to say where the red pencil should be applied.