The political scientist Wolfgang Merkel has raised the talk shows on German television to the role of kingmakers. Karl Lauterbach had become Federal Minister of Health in the Ampelkoalition through the plebiscite of these broadcasts. Anne Will protested a little, Lauterbach violently: Chancellor Olaf Scholz, whom he has known for 19 years, did not deduce Lauterbach’s suitability from the talk shows. That was settled and then “Anne Will” could have turned to the actual topic: New government, old crises – can the promised departure succeed? “
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What “Welt” editor-in-chief Dagmar Rosenfeld and Merkel initially did was coming to terms with the past. In a broad arc it went over the old government, the interregnum and the few days since then, the SPD. The Greens and the FDP rule. Praise mixed in with criticism before Merkel at least intervened if she did not address the essential current issue: the compulsory vaccination, which politicians are morally charged instead of ethically justified. The political scientist also spoke of the “division of society”, where in reality a large majority is opposed to a minority, which, however, is becoming increasingly radicalized. The group did not want to discuss what antidotes there are.
How many Lauterbachs are there?
Because with the keyword “vaccination” the camera, the moderator and the audience’s interest concentrated on the minister of the (television) hour. It wants to appear that Lauterbach exists several times: as Federal Minister of Health, as government spokesman, perhaps even as Federal Chancellor. The traffic light coalition should think twice about who to send on the talk shows. Only Lauterbach, that won’t be enough. Nancy Faeser (interior), Anne Spiegel (family), Bettina Stark-Watzinger (education and research) or Klara Geywitz (living) should introduce themselves to the large audience as soon as possible, the format of the talk show is suitable for this. In the same way, the talk show editors may consider whether a program gets structure, originality and quality if KL is confirmed as a guest. The SPD man can certainly do a lot, he can’t do everything. But the love between talk and guest is obviously very, very deep. Again and again the cameras went to Lauterbach and his face to capture the reactions of the others in the Will group. It’s good that the Christmas break is now coming, so KL and the Anne Wills of this television world can think about what they want to do with each other or without each other in 2022.
The government and the opposition should agree on compulsory vaccination
Of course, Karl Lauterbach impressed with his expertise. He already did that when he was not yet Minister of Health. But now he is challenged again. He has to make and shape vaccination policy. At this point, moderator Will could have combined new beginnings and the future. Did she little or nothing, whether Bundestag Vice-President Karin Göring-Eckardt (The Greens) or the opposition politician and candidate for the CDU chairmanship, Norbert Röttgen, worked on Klein-Klein missed, prevented measures to effectively combat pandemics. After all, Röttgen had an interesting proposal: the government and the democratic opposition should submit a joint draft law for a general vaccination requirement, which the Bundestag should debate extensively and every member of parliament should vote without being forced into a parliamentary group. Something flashed up that Scholz had announced and warned Merkel: transparency. And: Scholz must be clearer, as Merkel noted. Three examples from a federal press conference showed that this Chancellor uttered a lot of words without concrete content.
Boycott of the Winter Games?
In the finale, Anne Will, who had the reins of her panel firmly in hand, actually wanted to talk about a new departure in the self-proclaimed “progressive coalition”. The question was whether Germany should take part in a diplomatic boobott of the Olympic Winter Games in Beijing. Merkel recognized a major conflict between the SPD Chancellor and the Greens Foreign Minister, whose policies are determined by morality. Instead, Göring-Eckardt spoke of a value-based foreign policy. Karl Lauterbach did not take part in this debate. Beneficial, the Federal Minister of Health does not misunderstand himself as the Federal Chancellor.
