After a long back and forth, the grand coalition of CDU/CSU and SPD has now managed to form a government again. Yesterday, the Chancellor and her cabinet were sworn in for the benefit of the German people, so help them God. It’s a shame to imagine the positive aspects of a minority government, in which every decision has to be fought for a majority. In which it is not possible to simply bypass the majority and a “Keep it up!” would not be doable. That would have been a democracy.

I had such high hopes. First in the integrity of Martin Schulz, then, after he disappointed across the board, in the SPD base. But even these people preferred to become part of the government rather than seeing their comrades working for their money. Christian Lindner, by the way, showed how to behave with integrity. It is a shame that the Social Democratic majority did not take a leaf out of his book. Until Kevin Kühnert is party chairman one day, I will not take this party seriously anymore.

What is positive about this government?

I am happy that the Ministry of Defense is still headed by the same person. Von der Leyen may not be the most popular, but she is far from being the worst for the job; on the contrary, she has actually had really good approaches in the past. And the Bundeswehr simply deserves some stability in these times, especially in leadership.

Otherwise… No. Other than that I can’t see anything positive. I am even really shocked by Maas as Foreign Minister, by Altmaier as Minister of Economics, and Seehofer as Minister of the Interior.

Hopes for the future?

Unbridgeable differences, vote of no confidence, new elections. The earlier the better. This may sound very pessimistic, but I am convinced that this government will be even worse than the last one. And that there is a consensus that the last four years were not the best for this country is probably undisputed. Perhaps one day I will be able to experience a superb minority government. But my hopes for this are very low, this chance won’t come so soon again. Until then: dare more direct democracy!

#Government, #GroKo, #NoGroKo, #GermanElections, #Politics, #Berlin