From Bavaria there are actually only constant attacks on the federal government. Prime Minister and CSU boss Markus Söder hardly misses an opportunity to certify that Chancellor Olaf Scholz and his cabinet have done a miserable job. This is the “worst federal government that Germany has ever had,” Söder complained at his party’s Ash Wednesday in Passau. The CSU boss was celebrated there as a “superstar”.
Sometimes, however, as some in Söder’s state chancellery believe, such a superstar could also use some help from Chancellor Scholz. The AI 3 department, which deals with transport issues, wrote a draft letter from Söder to Scholz in mid-2022. Bavaria’s state government was struggling with a billion-dollar disaster that had been brewing for years but could no longer be hidden.
The construction of a second trunk line for the Munich S-Bahn, previously estimated at just under four billion euros, should now cost more than seven billion euros and be completed much later than previously announced. It wouldn’t be a bad idea, apparently thought the head of the AI 3 department, if the prime minister went to see the chancellor. And quickly drafted a two-page letter with clear content.
The Bavarian state government is “alert” about significant time delays and enormous cost increases that are now in the room. There is an “urgent need for action.”
The Deutsche Bahn – the state-owned company is drilling the new tunnel route through Munich – is required. And the federal government too. Everything finely formulated, in six paragraphs, down to the last letter.
The call for help from Munich to Berlin never went through. Someone in the hierarchy of the State Chancellery simply crossed out the beautiful letter. And handwritten orders that the forthcoming talks in Munich and Berlin should “wait and see”. What Söder himself knew about the process is not clear from the relevant note of July 15, 2022. Even if it contains the stamp: “Bayer. State Chancellery – Prime Minister – Entry July 15, 2022 …”
The letter draft even includes a splash of green color
The AI 3 department had put so much effort into it and artistically formulated that the expansion of the S-Bahn in the state capital with the second main line was one of the largest infrastructure projects in Germany and the “central backbone” for local rail transport in the Munich region. The letter draft even includes a splash of green color. This project stands “like hardly any other for the much-vaunted traffic turnaround”. And the Free State has always supported this great project.
But Deutsche Bahn simply does not present any figures on costs and time, it is said. And Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing (FDP) even “canceled a long-planned meeting”. Chancellor Scholz should, according to the finely thought-out suggestion in Söder’s state chancellery, call the state-owned company Bahn and his transport minister, who is just as unruly from the Bavarian government’s point of view, to order. And of course give the necessary money. Scholz should do everything that is necessary to advance the project.
Such a nice letter, and then it is simply not nodded and sent. Why actually? The AI 3 department itself wrote down the pros and cons for such a move. This was supported by the fact that a letter from Söder to Scholz could possibly help to strengthen its own Ministry of Transport in the upcoming negotiations with the Federal Ministry of Transport. On the other hand, the fact that the violation could make the negotiations more difficult speaks for itself. Because such a letter to Scholz (SPD) could be interpreted as “pressure on the traffic light coalition partner FDP”. Where there are already “cautiously positive signals” from Wissing’s ministry.
Söder confidante already noted in 2020: “Alarm !!! Immediate appointment DB!”
And anyway: it is “politically to decide” whether the proposed letter should be sent. And then the two pages were just crossed out. Perhaps someone in the State Chancellery had the right instinct and saved Söder, who was not very convincing on the second main route, from being embarrassed by Scholz. In the meantime, it has turned out that Söder’s government center was not only alarmed in mid-2022. But by September 2020 at the latest.
At that time, experts from the Bavarian Ministry of Transport had warned that the construction of the second main line could be delayed by six years to 2034 (now there is talk of 2035 to 2037). The Ministry of Transport quickly informed the State Chancellery. And there the head of the department, Karolina Gernbauer, one of the Prime Minister’s closest confidants, noted on September 25, 2020: “Alarm!!! DB must be called in immediately!” DB stands for Deutsche Bahn. The note on which Gernbauer wrote this also came from the AI 3 department. And the note at the time already spoke of an imminent cost increase in the billions.
The state government was warned early on
This was brought to light by the investigative committee in the state parliament that is supposed to clarify how the disaster in Bavaria’s largest construction project could have happened. Numerous documents show that the State Chancellery and Söder himself were warned early on and were repeatedly asked by the then Transport Minister Kerstin Schreyer (CSU) to take action. But the prime minister only really intervened when construction on the second main route was threatened with a halt in 2022.
In any case, Söder would rather scold Scholz than ask him for help. Scholz used to be “at least smurfy” been, said the CSU boss in one star-Interview; whatever that means. Elsewhere, on the RTL television station, Söder said that everything in the federal government was taking far too long; it goes “everything so criss-cross without a clear direction” and “far too much is said about the bush and not enough decisions are made”. This criticism is a little reminiscent of how Söder and his government dealt with the second main route. But then having to go to the Chancellor in this matter, at least Söder was spared this fate.