Laschet fails, Amthor on the sidelines: These are the flop politicians in 2021

Anyone who is involved in politics for the common good deserves every recognition. But for some politicians with particularly high ambitions, 2021 will be more than sobering. ntv.de presents a – very subjective – top 10 list. The accumulation of Union politicians is of course due to the super election year, which went extremely badly for the conservatives.

The flop politicians in 2021

10. Wolfgang Kubicki
The Kiel lawyer is not the type of man who likes to apologize for anything. After his excessive attacks on Karl Lauterbach or Frank Ulrich Montgomery, one of which was a Vice President of the Bundestag, he had to kowtow. In the debate about the correct Corona measures, the “loose cannon” of the FDP repeatedly overshoots the mark. The party leader Christian Lindner’s close adviser at the 2017 Jamaica negotiations is increasingly being sidelined within the party and is no longer part of Lindner’s closest circle – he is neither in the front row of the traffic light negotiations nor in the new federal cabinet.

9. Philipp Amthor
The 29-year-old has long been considered that Young talent from the CDU until he stumbled upon his part-time job for the IT company Augustus Intelligence in 2020. State chairmanship and top candidacy in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania are gone, the restart in 2021 turns into a farce: The CDU with its substitute candidate receives a disastrous result in the state election as well as in the federal election, in which Amthor is running as the top candidate. He not only loses his direct mandate in the constituency Mecklenburgische Seenplatte I – Vorpommern-Greifswald II to the SPD, but also lands in third place, even behind the AfD candidate. Afterwards, his own parliamentary group punishes Amthor with a subordinate post as specialist spokesman – and that with little approval. Oh yes, and Amthor has lost his driver’s license too.

8. Toni Hofreiter

Hardly any Bavarian polarizes like Anton “Toni” Hofreiter, and not necessarily on purpose. But the appearance and views of the Greens divide the minds. And that is exactly what will be his undoing in the year of the best Bundestag election result for his party. Hofreiter and his co-parliamentary group leader Katrin Göring-Eckardt are still considered safe candidates for a federal ministerial post during the traffic light negotiations. The party-left Hofreiter is expected as the new Minister of Agriculture because of his expertise. But the chairmen Annalena Baerbock and Robert Habeck are looking for a bridge builder for the important post and prefer Cem Oezdemir, who is also deserved by the Greens, but who is assigned to the Realo wing. Hofreiter is the big loser in a tough power struggle in the party, in which the party left is subject to the realos. Hofreiter is now chairman of the European Committee in the Bundestag – honorable, but not a ministerial post.

7. Norbert Roettgen
Norbert Röttgen makes two attempts to become the new party leader of the CDU. First he is defeated in January against Friedrich Merz and the eventual winner Armin Laschet. Then he lost in December together with Helge Braun against the new party chairman Merz. Both times the defeats are quite clear and Röttgen has not played a major role in the parliamentary group since the election, after having been chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs in the last legislative period. Can the Union do without him permanently? As a direct representative, Röttgen won his constituency with 40 percent of the first votes. Not so many of the CDU will succeed in doing this in 2021.

6. Janine Wissler and Dietmar Bartsch
In the end, it was not 8,000 votes that ensured the survival of the left as a parliamentary group in the Bundestag. Had it not been for Sören Pellmann’s third direct mandate in Leipzig South – Gregor Gysi and Gesine Lötzsch won with a certain degree of certainty – Pellmann and the 36 left-wing MPs who had moved up from the list would be busy today. Nevertheless, the left faction with the top candidates Janine Wissler and Dietmar Bartsch has shrunk by half. The state elections in 2021 were also sobering, the SPD seems to be addressing left-wing voters again. 2022 will not get any better: The party will have a hard time moving into the state parliaments of North Rhine-Westphalia, Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein, in Saarland threatens to be expelled.

5. Markus Söder
When, in the pandemic, many citizens long for a clear speech and a little more toughness in the implementation of the corona measures, Markus Söder’s moment suddenly strikes. The polls of the Prime Minister of Bavaria, who is permanently present on television, are shooting upwards. Those of the new CDU boss Armin Laschet, on the other hand, stagnate at a modest level. So Söder offers the Union as a candidate for chancellor. But when the CDU does not gratefully fall into the arms of the CSU boss and the CDU leadership pushes through its own chairman for the candidacy, things get ugly in the Union. Söder’s reputation also suffers. He faces severe losses in Bavaria in 2023. Nevertheless, Söder achieved at least one goal: Armin Laschet will not become chancellor.

4. Heiko Maas
Rarely has a German foreign minister resigned with less respect than Heiko Maas. He came to the Foreign Office as a candidate for embarrassment and for four years did not manage to develop an independent profile alongside the Federal Chancellor, who was ambitious in terms of foreign policy. The low point in the summer of 2021: When the last NATO countries left Afghanistan, the West was caught cold footed by the rapid advance of the Taliban. Other Western governments did not see the fall of Kabul coming like this either. But the fact that the Federal Foreign Office ignored warnings from its own embassy in Kabul and did not even plan just in case: Maas is ultimately responsible for that. In the coming year, he will have to explain himself to an investigative committee of the Bundestag. The political career of the former SPD hopeful is over for the time being.

3. Annalena Baerbock
Two years ago she was still a largely unknown member of the Bundestag and, as party leader of the Greens, was only ‘the new one’ alongside the much more famous Robert Habeck. Seen in this light, a candidate for chancellor that ends in the office of foreign minister is a more than remarkable success for Annalena Baerbock. But the 41-year-old knows: There was more to it. When she wrested the Greens’ first candidacy for chancellor from Habeck, her approval ratings and those of the Greens shot upwards. Baerbock could become Federal Chancellor. But a number of avoidable mistakes and contradictions arouse doubts in the population as to whether the ambitious young woman actually has the format of a chancellor. The Greens will be crushed in the final sprint between the SPD and the Union. Baerbock can and must now prove himself in a challenging position.

2. Jens Spahn
A year ago, Jens Spahn used the time between the years to telephone party colleagues to determine his chances of being chancellor. Why not? The Federal Minister of Health has received a lot of recognition for the overall level-headed, but gripping, handling of the first corona wave. But when the vaccination campaign got off to a slow start in early 2021, the announced compulsory testing failed due to test capacities, more and more questionable mask deals became public and the absurdly high costs for a few free FFP2 masks for over 59-year-olds, Spahn’s star dropped rapidly. On top of that, the federal government repeatedly disappoints expectations that it has set itself in the further course of the pandemic and that the boosters are not prepared in autumn. The post of Chancellor is so far away for Spahn than it has been for years.

1. Armin Laschet

If someone falls as low as Armin Laschet, nobody needs to follow suit. Nevertheless, the then Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia dared to do a lot when he fought for the CDU chairmanship against Friedrich Merz in January. But then he does not live up to his own expectations or those of the potential Union voters. Even the struggle with Söder for the candidacy for chancellor reveals the lack of strategic skill and the lack of unconditional will that it probably needs to become chancellor. The fact that Laschet does not succeed in setting up an election campaign that is coherent in terms of content and personnel and implementing it with all his might can ultimately be traced back to the CDU chief himself. Mishaps in the election campaign only confirm the impression of a man whom many have found too easy for the size of the office. Laschet nevertheless shows greatness: Firstly, by taking sole responsibility for the federal election disaster and thus defusing internal party debates that could tear the Union apart even further. And secondly, by treating the election winner SPD with dignity. Laschet is one of the first to congratulate Olaf Scholz in the Bundestag and sets the tone for his union, which is a decent loser in the democratic competition – for the good of the whole country.