It has been official since Wednesday, December 8th: The Merkel era is over, Olaf Scholz rules the country. And with the slogan “Dare to make more progress”, the new traffic light alliance went straight to the top, based on Willy Brandt’s legendary “Dare to Dare More Democracy” from 1969. At first glance, however, the emancipatory awakening does not appear. Because the face of this traffic light are three men – Chancellor Scholz, Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck and Finance Minister Christian Lindner. And if you take Scholz’s promise – “Women should have half the power in the cabinet” – exactly, then he did not deliver here either. Of 17 cabinet posts including Chancellor, only eight are held by women.
But the end of the Beckmesserei. What is remarkable, however, is that the three traditionally tough departments, defense, interior and foreign ministries, are all occupied by women, the latter even for the first time. In a society that is still patriarchal, this is quite daring, especially since Annalena Baerbock as the woman in the Foreign Office and the Hessian SPD leader Nancy Faeser as Interior Minister take over their posts without executive experience. The style is likely to change considerably here. It is hard to imagine that Faeser, like the “red sheriff” Otto Schily once did, will swing the police stick and mark the tough woman. Baerbock’s demeanor is also likely to be very different from that of her predecessors, but whether to the benefit of the country in these geopolitically dangerous times remains to be seen.
A risk cabinet
The main thing about the cabinet is its inexperience. So if the new staff is by no means without risk, Scholz plays it safe in terms of content. Before the coalition negotiations he had promised a “social-ecological-liberal coalition” with big words, now we are mainly getting a social-liberal one with a small green annex.
“The common consensus of this government is not to preach renunciation everywhere – we don’t do that at all – but to rely on technological progress and dynamic entrepreneurship,” was Scholz’s central sentence at the SPD party congress on the adoption of the coalition agreement. With this definition of progress, he makes it very clear: a social transformation that goes beyond a purely technological one is not to be expected. The Chancellor’s motto is to create a climate-neutral economy with alternative technologies in one of the most powerful industrialized countries in the world and thus to set an example for the world. At the same time, it gives no answer to the question of how this can be achieved without waiver and restrictions, namely via the effect of a significantly more expensive CO₂ price, for example in the area of air or cruise travel, which is currently being sought.
As a loyal student of Angela Merkel, Scholz always acts according to the motto “no unreasonable demands”. And so, to the delight of the FDP, emerged in the negotiations as a social liberal of the purest form, in the tradition of the pragmatist and anti-visionary Helmut Schmidt – albeit without his brilliant, cutting and sharp rhetoric, but just as tough in the Matter.
The goal is 2025
What already became apparent after the explorations therefore ultimately came true: the Greens were the least likely to be able to enforce their concerns that extend farthest into the future. The SPD has put its own essentials in the contract with minimum wages and secure pensions, while the FDP has put all its prevention positions in place – no new taxes, no debts, no citizens’ insurance, no speed limit. Lindner will keep the coffers tight and the new transport minister, Volker Wissing, will ensure that what the Greens are striving for will only turn into a drive turnaround: a huge economic stimulus program by converting the entire fleet of cars from combustion to electric motors. Always with Scholz’s approval as a technocratic growth proponent: Because his most important goal is crystal clear, re-election in 2025. And in doing so, burdens on his own clientele can only harm.
It will therefore be very difficult for the Greens in the next four years. Above all, they have to manage the actual transformation to a sustainable society with their core departments – climate, environment, agriculture. There is a lot of work to do for the new Super Minister Habeck. Especially since the removal of Anton Hofreiter in favor of Cem Özdemir, who is well versed in foreign policy but, as Agriculture Minister, has not exactly increased the anticipation of the left-wing parties for the traffic light alliance.
It would be all the more important to have strong leadership from the self-proclaimed “climate chancellor”. But that was just an election campaign, now comes the trial of strength. And if Scholz should now try his famous sentence in the cabinet, “If you order a leadership from me, you will also get it”, it should sound like a threat very quickly – not for the opposition, but for the Greens.
.