EIt probably depends on the chancellor again. Before the coalition committee on Sunday, none of the traffic light brawlers gave the impression of moving away from their demands. The series of points of contention is so long that the session on Sunday will not be enough.
Gas heaters, planning acceleration, combustion engines, the turnaround in traffic, basic child security, skilled workers – minor matters such as the federal budget will probably have to wait a while. However, Chancellor Olaf Scholz will not find it difficult to bring the FDP and the Greens, who are always at stake, to their senses. They like to argue, but then they are quiet and well-behaved again when “Dad” says what to do.
Scholz can rely on the fact that the coalition, which threatens to make its permanent crisis a trademark, agrees that it must be continued unconditionally. This is the new form of the lack of alternatives, which was still criticized in Angela Merkel’s day as an expression of a lack of political creativity.
As a result, however, the willingness to engage in conflict has not decreased, but increased. In particular, the FDP and the Greens know that it won’t work without them, but that they don’t want to be without traffic lights either. They get caught up in the formulaic compromises of the coalition agreement, which have to be renegotiated as soon as it becomes concrete.
Conflicts especially in climate policy
This will remain the case, especially in climate policy, where the dirigiste model of the Greens meets the market model of the FDP. No one made that clearer than Robert Habeck. Why bans when emissions trading with CO2-Price leads to the same result, he was asked. Response from the Economics Minister: Because this is the only way to plan with certainty.
In the phase-out of coal, in traffic, with gas heating, we are experiencing the complete opposite: uncertainty and high costs, because politicians always know better. Entrepreneurs therefore see it the other way around, like Habeck. The private households probably too. Unfortunately, it is not to be expected that dad will teach his children why this is so.