Is there still something going on between these three gentlemen?

The capital - Is there still something going on between these three gentlemen?

"Die Hauptstadt" - the newsletter from the stern office in Berlin. Every week with the most important assessments from the editorial team. Subscribe here free of charge.

Dear readers,

When politicians have had a long, hard meeting, I like to look at their faces. After a night of negotiations, for example, which is said to happen occasionally in our federal government, I want to know if I can read anything from their facial expressions. Exhaustion, stress, signs of exertion and fatigue. Some kind of human trait, you would think, would be recognizable after such battles.

Most of the time, however, the people involved just look the same as always, which on the one hand amazes me, but on the other hand also shows me that there is a reason why I didn't become a politician. I would probably fall asleep at the microphone in similar situations. Or simply fall over.

On this Wednesday afternoon, Olaf Scholz, Christian Lindner and Robert Habeck appeared in front of the cameras in the Chancellor's Office after pulling an all-nighter to somehow still be able to present a budget for the coming year. Ok, maybe they were a little paler than usual, but otherwise they looked reasonably fit. Lindner even had a quote ready. The cabinet had dealt with the issue of loneliness. "However, I can say that the three of us have not been affected in recent weeks," he said, appearing for a moment as if he had to stifle a laugh.

Perhaps that was a sign of fatigue after all. There is actually nothing to laugh about in this government drama. Sure, four weeks after the embarrassment in Karlsruhe, the budget for 2024 is finally in place. In order to plug the 17 billion euro hole, there are now to be major savings and cuts. But does this nitpicking really give the coalition any impetus? Is there a jolt through the government? Is something new emerging? I have my doubts. Scholz, Lindner and Habeck have decided on a budget emergency on demand. As soon as the situation in Ukraine requires more German involvement, the debt brake is to be suspended after all. This could happen in a few weeks or a few months, but in any case the dispute will soon be back. In the background, the parties are already worried that they will be politically punished for the compromise. The resolutions will make life more expensive here and there. You can read exactly where here.

PERSON OF THE WEEK

Hubertus Heil is a phenomenon. The man is 51, but has been part of the political establishment for 25 years. He was twice General Secretary of the SPD, led the parliamentary group in the Bundestag for eight years as Vice-Chairman, and since becoming Minister of Labor in 2018, he has been silently reeling off his program. You don't notice anything about Heil? That's exactly his principle. Not even the fierce dispute over the Citizen's Income has been able to rattle the Social Democrat in recent weeks; he has largely been able to keep his project from the austerity measures. My colleague Miriam Hollstein accompanied a man who is a secret hero for many in his party in these weeks.

AND OTHERWISE?

Do you still know Angela Merkel? Just kidding. But you might have forgotten about the former Chancellor. Merkel has completely disappeared for months to write her memoirs with her office manager. Behind closed doors, however, she recently caused a bit of a shock: she resigned from the Adenauer Foundation. My colleague Nico Fried took a look at what is actually going on between Merkel and her party, the CDU.

ALL YOUR FAVORITES

Your highlight of the week

... was an outburst of anger from my colleague Jan Rosenkranz. I know he already had one last week about the citizen's income. But Jan doesn't just have a short fuse at the moment, he also has a very good eye for when things are really going wrong politically. And something is really going wrong with the Greens in Berlin at the moment.

My highlight of the week

... was a text by a man I still refer to as a colleague because I don't want to get used to the fact that he went into semi-retirement two weeks ago: Andreas Hoidn-Borchers. We assume that this is an unfortunate mistake on the part of the HR department, which will no doubt soon come to light. Fortunately, Andreas has left behind a few texts in the meantime, which we will present to you in due course. One of them, a really worthwhile essay on why we Germans are pretty much off track in 2023, can be found in the special end-of-year issue that has just been published - and here.

By the way: please don't tell anyone, but a couple of friends of mine have persuaded me to go to Hamburg on Saturday and party a bit after a really long time. Apparently they want to party the night away. Them too now! You're spared nothing.

Have a good week!

Veit Medick

P.S.: How did you like the newsletter? Write to me: [email protected]. Or recommend us to others. You can subscribe to the newsletter free of charge here.