So , a few days have gone by, first state visits have been done, it all has sunk in a bit... time for some quick thoughts. To anyone who follows German news, this will contains not many new insights.
I'm absolutely astonished how much the coalition agreement seems to be written mainly by the smallest of the three partners, the FDP. It seems they leveraged their well-known preference for coalitions with the CDU/CSU very well.
While I am personally very happy that a blanket speed limit is off the table, I am well aware that my personal preferences are not always the most prudent solution. Let's see. Because on the other hand, they made climate things part of the Ministry of Economy, lead by the Green's Robert Habeck. This leads also to the strange situation that we now have a Minister for Climate
and a seperate Minister for Environment.
Personnel and ministry situation in general: Some weird choices as to what party gets which ministry. Traffic went to the FDP, not the Greens. Foreign Ministry to the Greens - let's see how Annalena Baerbock manages this, many people are sceptical despite her having a European/foreign policy background in general. Well, she didn't perform very well in the election campaign. And with Russia showing strong interest in obtaining some neighbouring real estate, she already has her plate full, unfortunately.
Ministry for Interior goes to Nancy Faeser (SPD), who is totally unknown outside of her home state of Hesse, basically. But there she is known for battling right-wing extremism, and that makes me think she's the right person for the job. After all, it's a bad tradition in that ministry and the security forces to turn a blind eye to right-wing extremism, including basically harboring nazis in the own ranks.
Ministry of Defense - Christine Lambrecht (SPD). Well, that post is an ejection seat anyway. In contrast to other countries, it's a tradition here to have a civilian on that post and not a General or something, in case anyone wonders why this woman distinctly looking like a primary school teacher has landed that post.
The most significant ministry
right now is of course the Ministry of Health, which is now lead by Karl Lauterbach, who has basically been the loudest political voice in Germany during the Covid pandemic - he's not only a member of parliament, but actually a medical doctor, and in fact specializes in epidemiology and health policy/management (studied that at Harvard). Hated by the Covid deniers, loved by many on the non-crazy side of the argument, respected even by the CDU. I hope he does well. Maybe he will be completely used up by the time we have finally managed to get this thing under control, but he will be a big part of that, I'm sure.
Appointing him was at the same time almost unavoidable and a big surprise, because he is not that well liked in his own party. Apparently he's kind of a maverick. Perhaps this is the way to get rid of him for some...
The Greens will have to elect new people to lead the party, as the still-leading duo of Baerbock and Habeck now are ministers in the federal government, and the party does not allow people to hold such high positions in both the government and the party.
Now on to another aspect: The German parliament works heavily in subcommittees, and those each have a chairman. These chairmen get elected in kind of a round-robin between all the parties represented in parliament. Meaning, the biggest party gets to choose a committee, then the second-biggest, and so on.
Due to the priorities the different parties set, the chairs of the committees for both Interior and Health went to the AfD - so the party that's partially under observation by the domestic intelligence services for being opposed to the democratic order now has the chair of the committee overseeing the domestic intelligence services. That will be fun. They are also the party of Covid deniers (mostly because it's the way to show your general discontent with the "system"), and they now lead the Health committee. Great.
The problem is that many, if not most of the committees would be in a bad spot if chaired by the AfD. Committee for Europe? Yeah right. Still, the angle with the intelligence services makes this outcome particularly peculiar. We'll see...
Summarized, same as many journalists I see something I've missed in a long time: A sense of mission, a will to change. I just hope this isn't an illusion.
