In Meseberg the traffic lights “knocked and hammered” as so often. But did anything come of it? And how does the traffic light start the big second half of the season? We draw five insights from the cabinet meeting.
1. The therapy session was successful for the moment
In Meseberg, the cabinet pulled itself together and worked despite the disputes of the last few weeks. Lindner describes it as “hammering and knocking” again. The traffic light has put together resolutions on three major topics: economy, bureaucracy, and digitalization.
After the delay caused by the Family Minister’s veto, the Cabinet today passed the Growth Opportunities Act. Among other things, it contains 50 tax reliefs. However, different than planned a few months ago. Lindner explained that they responded “agilely” to the economic situation. The annual relief volume has grown to a good 7 billion euros for the period up to 2028 – increased by almost half a billion. In the future, not 60, but 80 percent of company losses should be tax deductible. Also new is the reintroduction of declining depreciation for residential buildings – this is intended to promote new construction.
To reduce bureaucracy, the cabinet in Meseberg has decided on the key points for a law that is to be presented this year. This should also help the sluggish economy: the planned measures could save 2.3 billion euros a year. “Central decisions have been advanced” regarding digitalization, said Scholz. They want to make progress particularly in the health system. Within the next two years, e-prescriptions in doctor’s practices and electronic patient files are expected to become standard.
The summer break was productive for his cabinet, emphasized Scholz. Now it is up to the parliaments. The passed laws still have to go through the Bundestag and Bundesrat. This is where it will be decided how effective they ultimately become. The therapy session of the cabinet in Meseberg, however, was successful for the moment: you work – if not silently.
2. The government is still very male dominated
Such exams are always about pictures. They convey a mood, as natural as possible, that contrasts with the reputation that precedes the government: namely, of being a divided bunch. So there’s a lot of laughter, people show up together outside in the garden, and, of course, at the end Olaf Scholz, Christian Lindner and Robert Habeck appear to make it clear to the Republic that the team spirit in the traffic lights is right. But what is always noticeable: It is above all the three men who shape the image of the traffic light, who communicate, who lead the way.
The entire power center of the government is male-dominated. A quick overview: Scholz, Lindner and Habeck are joined by Wolfgang Schmidt, the head of the Chancellery, Steffen Hebestreit, the government spokesman and Steffen Saebisch, State Secretary in the Ministry of Finance and Lindner’s top assistant. Of course, politics can also work among men, but the preponderance is noticeable, especially in a chancellor’s cabinet, which should actually be equal. Although: Scholz also said goodbye to that when he replaced the hapless Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht with Boris Pistorius.
You can think what you want of Lisa Paus’ maneuver to block the Growth Opportunities Act right after the summer break. But it’s interesting. Did she perhaps just want to slip in between as a woman? In any case, it is certain that the entire squad of men did not see this attack coming. Possibly also because she believes too much that she can sort everything out among herself. It would probably help the government to think a little more equally, also when it comes to the center of the traffic light.
3. The exam had a big gap
Despite all the harmony that the three government lads radiated, there is something that could still become a big problem: money. In other words: the lack of money. The question has already been difficult because the budget bottlenecks meant that some projects – such as basic child welfare – had to be curtailed. And they meant that perhaps the biggest issue was left out of the meeting: the question of whether or not energy-intensive companies should be supported with subsidized electricity.
One could actually have expected that the conflict over the industrial electricity price would finally be resolved at a meeting that was supposed to provide an impetus for the economy. But it’s just not that simple, it’s actually quite complicated. Because the project would cost billions. Because it raises a ton of legal questions. Because the argument doesn’t follow the usual lines either. He goes right through the government.
The SPD – supported by the large trade unions – is largely in favor of it, as are the Greens. Lindner brakes. Because he has no money and also thinks that government subsidies shouldn’t be planned again. By the way, the Chancellor is more on Lindner’s side. The dispute has the potential to soon make Meseberg’s harmony forgotten again. Because of all people, Scholz’s Social Democrats are putting a lot of pressure on him. They told the Chancellor that directly at their own retreat this week. There’s a lot going on there.
4. The chancellor has the faxes thick
There was one thing the federal government didn’t want to succeed in at all in the first half of the legislature: communicating success reports well – or communicating them at all. In Meseberg, Olaf Scholz once again emphasizes that he is gradually fed up: No government has ever decided as much as his in such a short time, he says, and yet everyone only talks about arguments. How to change that?
Robert Habeck throws out strategy number one: Well, actually, arguments are generally a strength: “We don’t show static unity, but rather a learning unity.” So we learn from each other. Lindner conjures up an old craftsman’s saying in front of the Meseberg Castle: “We are a government in which people hammer and knock, and that’s what you hear.” Motto: Where there is planing, there are chips.
A new netiquette would be important for the cabinet, as the last three days have shown. Christian Lindner and Lisa Paus have just made up after their battle for basic child security. Paus had to take bad press, she was only able to fight for 2.4 billion for her social reform. A day later, Hubertus Heil announced an increase in the standard rates of citizen income from 2024 by 12 percent. Great news, but strange timing. He steps on Paus’s toes and the message gets lost in the many analyzes of basic child welfare, all of which are: The traffic light doesn’t do enough for the poor. Ouch.
From now on, the cabinet should be equipped with silencers, says Scholz in Meseberg. So that the “many, important” decisions and results are not lost because people worked on them “too loudly”. Maybe he needs to explain this to Christian Lindner in more detail, as he also switches into attack mode at the slightest provocation in Meseberg. When a reporter asks, for example, how the Chancellor will deal with objections from the FDP parliamentary group to the government’s legislative initiatives, Lindner interjects: “Sorry, your question seems a bit monotonous to me.”
5. This government is far from finished
With all the confusion, the bad polls and the grumpiness of some ministers, one sometimes gets the impression that this government may soon come to an end. What you sometimes forget is that things can go on with her for a long time. The traffic lights now start the second half of the season, if you will. She still has two years until the next federal government. “We are probably done with the most complicated projects now,” said Wolfgang Schmid, the head of the Chancellery star said. In other words, everything will be easier from now on.
This is of course a very benevolent view. The conflict over the industrial electricity price does not take place in this scenario, nor do unforeseeable geopolitical developments or economic catastrophes. But what makes the Chancellor’s team so confident is the following calculation: everything is rearranged in election campaigns. The opposition is far from organized. And anyone who complains about the government these days may be asking themselves shortly before the election who they would actually rather be governed by. Scholz will use his experience – at least those around the Chancellor are firmly convinced of that.
Everything that seems like a weakness at the moment should then be a strength: the Chancellor’s long-windedness could then have a calming effect, and his indecision could have a calming effect. By the way: The FDP and the Greens should also have an interest in things going a little quieter from now on. Anyone who constantly talks about their own government in a bad mood is unattractive. The SPD experienced this for years in the grand coalition. Scholz drove it out of his party as a candidate for chancellor.