…has to be the suit wearer with sewn-up trouser pockets in the midst of costumed game fans. Is the Vice-Chancellor fed up with thrift?
Here it goes. No crippling bureaucracy, no sluggish authorities. Just a hard-working construction worker who quickly builds a sports airport. First he excavates the runway, then he sprints over to a crane to move a few more containers. Robert Habeck looks impressed. That’s the way it should be in Germany, he says. “That’s the Germany speed that everyone is talking about.” Beautiful, uncomplicated and unfortunately only virtual world.
Thursday morning, the economics minister examines the “construction simulator” presented by a developer studio at Gamescom on a gigantic screen. The title of the computer game keeps what it promises: In the “Construction Simulator” it is playfully easy to open and close construction sites. If what you saw could be transferred to politics, Habeck would probably scrape together all the funding in the world.
The Vice Chancellor is currently struggling with several major construction sites. The economy is stagnant. The climate targets are likely to be torn. The Greens refuse to support their front man in the government, as the scandal surrounding the Growth Opportunities Act has shown. Is Gamescom a place where he can finally shine again?
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Dedicated but slightly awkward, Habeck grabs the controller to play a new adventure game. Or sit down in an apparatus that is said to be based on the cockpit of a spaceship. The Economics Minister will also put on virtual reality glasses on his tour to try out an environmental simulator. That sometimes seems strange. But the fact that Robert Habeck is at Gamescom, the world’s largest video game fair in Cologne, between costumed game fans and screen-paneled developer booths, is almost his duty.
Habeck has also been Games Minister since he took over the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Protection. With the change of government, the area has changed from the Ministry of Transport to his department. Since March 2022, the ministry has had its own games department with five employees. Next year, around 50 million euros are to flow from Habeck’s house into the booming industry – and that’s exactly the problem.
This problem is representative of a conflict that an economics minister cannot please: There is an economic sector that could sprout so nicely, but is longing for water. It needs money, investments, subsidies. But Habeck also has to step on the debt brake and save where it hurts. Only 50 million for what Habeck calls a “crucial growth industry”? The industry association Game sees this as “another emergency stop” in the rise and catch-up race. There they fear falling even further behind in the global competition. And Habeck? Feels the thrift probably increasingly as an impertinence.
Robert Habeck and the tiresome money issue
Wednesday evening, the Games Minister gives a speech to industry representatives and the trade press before the official start of the Games Fair. It’s a typical Habeck speech, full of philosophy and wisdom. “How games develop tells how we develop,” he says. Or, if he were allowed to make this “presumptuous” comparison with a view to the past year: “Those who play together may not shoot and fight together.” Rhetorical high bar, he can do that.
He also talks about money. Habeck would have liked to have brought more of them with him. But Germany has “very strict fiscal rules”, much stricter than inmany other countries. He doesn’t want to digress now, he says, but then he does: investing in the future also means not just spending money that you already have. No company would act like that, says the minister, and no one who wants to buy an apartment would either.
Will Habeck challenge his colleague Finance Minister to the next duel?
The Games Minister will reject the hoped-for extra funding from the industry that evening. Promising the blue from heaven, that only works in games, he says. But Habeck indicates that he has his doubts about the sense of thrift.
Short review: At the beginning of August, Habeck reported back from the summer break with a big “Zeit” interview. In it he made a clear commitment to the debt brake, which the FDP in particular adheres to strictly. About a week later, Katharina Beck spoke in “Spiegel”. Beck is the Green Party’s financial policy spokeswoman, so it’s safe to assume that she speaks for the entire parliamentary group. In the conversation, she openly questioned the tight corset of the debt brake – and thus also the statements made by the Green Economics Minister.
Has Habeck shook hands with his party, which would rather invest than save? With a view to the forthcoming budgetary weeks, this question could become even more important.
Back to the aisles of Gamescom called “Ninja Parkour” or “Indie Area”. Habeck’s tour of the fair takes him past all sorts of game booths. There is not much to understand in the huge halls of the Cologne trade fair. Music and the clatter of controllers boomed from all corners. So here’s a quick recap of what’s on display: Habeck playing X-Box, Habeck in front of a sports car, Habeck in a walk-in virtual reality environment simulator. Always there: the mischievous Habeck smile. He’s obviously having fun.
He is (finally) handed a microphone for recording an online streaming show. After a few feel-good questions, the moderator comes back to the tiresome money issue. How about the funding? Unfortunately, the money is not on the street, answers Habeck. “The Treasury Secretary is forcing everyone to save money everywhere now.” Clear statement, with best regards to Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP). Habeck conjures up creative solutions, one shouldn’t stare at the snake like a rabbit, he says. But the answer remains sobering, even for the games minister.
At the end of his tour, Habeck presented a number of funding notifications to companies that submitted their applications early enough. The demand is so great that this year’s funding pot was already exhausted in May. Habeck sees this as more of a duty than a success. Nevertheless, his ministry had to impose an application freeze. Since the approximately 50 million euros for 2024 are only sufficient to cover claims for funding that has already been approved, no new applications will be possible until the beginning of 2025.
A few kids, maybe 14 or 15 years old, stay put. “That’s the chancellor, or something like that,” says one. “Yes, Olaf Scholz, man!” Says another. Robert Habeck has yet to arrive in the games world.