The traffic light messes up its own restart (opinion)

Opinion

Growth Opportunity Act
As you do to me, so I to you: The traffic light messes up its own restart

The family minister’s veto on the finance minister’s pet project shows one thing: after the summer break, the traffic light coalition is picking up where it left off.

There are terms in political communication that appear just as suddenly as they disappear again. The “ReStart” was such a term, a pandemic creation. As the The number of corona infections decreased when more and more people were vaccinated, so politicians, economists and editorialists talked for weeks about what was now necessary: ​​the restart.

It’s been a long, long time.

Dare to make more progress, that would be something!

Aside from not having to use English to describe a reboot, this week would have been a good time to give the reboot a comeback. The parliamentary summer break is coming to an end, most federal ministers are back from vacation, freshly recovered from government stress, ready for new traffic light adventures. After two years of chaos coalition, the second half is now beginning. Dare to make more progress, but now really, that would be something! Finally more together than against each other. Finally results instead of blockades. Finally restart.

This is what a reboot could have looked like

The program for the cabinet meeting on Wednesday was accordingly ambitious: municipal heat planning, solar subsidies, cannabis law. Looks like progress in climate protection. And fulfills the central promise that young Germans in particular have repeatedly reminded of at the traffic lights: finally Bubatz legal!

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This is what a successful restart could have looked like. When the heating law is then quietly passed in the Bundestag in a few weeks, one could almost have thought that one or the other was reflecting on their own government actions while on vacation.

Would have. Because the traffic light makes no move to reactivate the restart as the top political requirement. Also on the agenda was the Federal Minister of Finance’s Growth Opportunities Act, Christian Lindner’s heart project. Well, it stood there until Family Minister Lisa Paus came – and vetoed it (the star reported).

There it was again, the traffic light team spirit of spring: As you do, so you do.

column

Fried – The Politics Column
Politicians come out of the summer break with good intentions – Nico Fried knows that these are quickly passé

5 hours ago

FDP boss Lindner would like to relieve the German economy of six billion euros in view of the difficult situation. It is not known whether the Minister for Family Affairs, Paus, thinks this is a good idea. But because she insists on the billions for the green heart project, she is now doing what her party always accuses the liberals of doing: she blocks. The FDP reacted accordingly emotionally and reproachfully.

New party system? A farce

It’s a story only written by the traffic light. Since the SPD, Greens and FDP have been in government together, they have always emphasized that the Germans have to get used to the fact that a three-way constellation of very different partners creates more friction. Then there is talk of the “new party system”. Of creative strife that leads to better results. This government, it is said, carries out all of the country’s social conflicts on its own behalf.

One might be inclined to follow this argument. If only the traffic light would not lead them ad absurdum themselves again and again. New party system? Yes, but as a farce.

The new dispute raises a whole series of questions: Isn’t it possible to regulate it differently? Is it really worth jumping back into the green and yellow trenches before the end of the summer break? Do all those who accuse the Greens of bad intentions now feel confirmed in the FDP? What drives Lisa Paus to go it alone, when Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck apparently approved Lindner’s plans?

What does the chancellor say about this?

And, of course, not to forget: What does the chancellor actually have to say about this?

As a political observer, one would do well not to always write down the first thought. If something happens – say: Greens accuse liberals of something indecent – it is advisable to pause for a moment. Is that really true? Couldn’t it be different? With a little more thought, the more surprising realization usually succeeds.

Today is such a day when the first thought is enough: The traffic light messed up the restart.

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