Scholz at the re:publica: A signal without effect

Chancellor Scholz’s speech at the re:publica conference was peppered with digital-political buzzwords. Nevertheless, listeners were disappointed: Scholz did not give the topic any real priority.

Olaf Scholz laughs. Actually, one would expect that the Chancellor, especially in the spotlight of the re:publica digital conference in Berlin, would react embarrassed or embarrassed by what he was reporting from his everyday life. “I applied for a new passport and ID card offline today – there was no other way.” A fact that the head of government tells so cheerfully, as if one could simply smile away at the state of administrative modernization in Germany.

Scholz is the first head of government to come to re:publica. Despite a permanent invitation, Angela Merkel was not there once in the long years of her chancellorship. For Scholz, the event itself is not new territory, most recently he was there as finance minister in 2019. And it certainly has a bit of a signal effect that he is coming to this important meeting of the digital scene, tech community and network policy heads in his new office.

Change is difficult

In his speech, the Federal Chancellor talks about the Ukraine, the Russian war of aggression, how the international structure has shifted. He talks about fighting disinformation and hate online. He warns of cyber attacks. He criticizes that technologies are misused as instruments of power. He advocates digital sovereignty, responsible handling of data and its sensible use.

It is a speech full of digital-political buzzwords. Scholz does not hide the fact that digital change is difficult in his own country, especially in offices and administrations. But it doesn’t seem to be his special or even personal project to change that. Rather, it seems as if he were talking about something with which he himself has little or nothing to do in terms of history of responsibility.

“No digital turning point”

“My expectations weren’t high and he didn’t fall below them,” says Anke Domscheit-Berg about Scholz’s statements. The member of the Bundestag is digital policy spokeswoman for the parliamentary group Die Linke and feels sorry for the chancellor, especially in view of the analogue ID application: “Especially in his function, in which one does not actually have the time to go to offices, it would have been charming if it worked digitally would have.”

Domscheit-Berg criticizes that Scholz does not give digitization any real priority from her point of view. “For me it was not a digital turning point.” Germany is second-class digitally, Linda Zervakis, who moderates the conversation after the speech, accuses the Chancellor. “Germany needs significant progress,” Scholz said.

He has largely handed over the coordination of digital policy, which was last located in the Chancellery under Angela Merkel. Among other things, to someone who bears the title “Digital Minister” but is also responsible for transport: Volker Wissing. “We have to overcome the analog,” said the FDP politician three hours before the chancellor in the same place. He promises a lot: ambitions, strategies and of course broadband expansion for everyone by 2030.

Wissing takes a stand

Markus Beckedahl is familiar with these “perseverance slogans”, as he calls them. The journalist is one of the co-founders of Re:publica. For him, the government of the SPD, Greens and FDP started with many good digital policy intentions – but so far they have not delivered. After all, the fact that the Chancellor and Digital Minister are asking questions at the network conference, which is quite politically critical, is to be welcomed.

Beckedahl is also pleasantly surprised that Wissing takes a clear position on two sensitive issues: the rejection of chat control without cause, as has just been proposed at EU level, and the commitment to net neutrality. This states that Internet providers must treat all data the same way when it is passed through or streamed.

responsibilities not clear

However, the traffic light digital strategy stipulated in the coalition agreement is still missing. At the re:publica, Wissing explained that a first draft was in “early voting” between the ministries and that he wanted a cabinet decision in July, but that he was not yet satisfied: “There needs to be more butter in the fish.”

This may also be related to the fact that the digital minister is not or not entirely responsible for many things. The Ministry of the Interior, for example, is responsible for cyber security and administrative digitization, while the Ministry of Economic Affairs wants to have a say on the subject of data. At the moment, not all digital responsibilities have been clarified, the situation is confusing.

Journalist Beckedahl says there is no one point of contact in the government. “Nobody in the front row is really digital and motivated.” Especially not the chancellor, who is also due to his socialization “so far more of a participating observer of digitization.”

Scholz makes a promise

Left-wing politician Domscheit-Berg signs it – even after the re:publica speech. “Digitization is definitely not Scholz’s top priority,” she says. At the end he is asked when it will finally be time to apply for an ID card digitally. “I don’t want to say that out loud because I know the processes in Germany,” Scholz replies, smiles loudly again and promises: “We will push this forward with great speed.”

There is actually a date, as Domscheit-Berg points out. By the end of 2022, at least 35 administrative services – including ID cards, marriages and re-registrations – are to be offered digitally across Germany. This was decided by a joint committee of the federal and state governments.

Reservations in the Federal Council

Whether this will work is uncertain. Another digital project of the government is currently not certain: the right to a minimum supply of Internet, which should help that white spots get at least a little network. The corresponding ordinance was recently passed in the Bundestag.

However, it is controversial because the prescribed upload and download speeds are not sufficient from the point of view of network activists and consumer advocates. Because some federal states also see it that way, the project could still fail in the vote in the Bundesrat on Friday.