Saturday 17th July 2021
Laschet in Erftstadt
Giggle in disaster – totally wrong!
A comment by Nikolaus Blome
Together with Federal President Steinmeier, Prime Minister and CDU leader Laschet visits the Rhein-Erft district, which has been badly affected by the flooding. But a brief moment causes criticism: Laschet giggles in the midst of the catastrophe. You really don’t do that.
In the front of the picture, the Federal President expresses his sympathy, his sadness and his bewilderment. In the back of the picture, a few meters away, a group of others is smirking, and in the middle of it stands NRW state father Armin Laschet, currently the most promising candidate for chancellor. You joke, you laugh, it goes on for torturously long seconds. The group thinks they are not being watched. But the camera that Steinmeier speaks into films them too.
No, Armin Laschet does not laugh at Steinmeier or even at the well over a hundred dead from the flood disaster, one cannot and does not want to believe that is possible. To suggest this is malicious and ridiculous at the same time. No, Armin Laschet laughs at something, probably something pretty unimportant, maybe a little joke. But that is exactly his problem now and it could be very big for the candidate for chancellor.
Nobody asks politicians to constantly walk through the country with a bitterly serious expression. But when politicians appear in disaster areas, get a picture, express compassion and promise help – then there are no minor matters that can distract. Then there must be no moment without full concentration, no moment that seems embarrassingly irrelevant in the midst of suffering and death. In the meantime, videos have surfaced that also show Steinmeier smiling while Laschet speaks. It’s not as silly a laugh as the prime minister’s, however.
Would that have undermined Merkel?
Politicians don’t have to cry with the affected people, it can be terribly curious. But at the same time a condition for being close to the victims in such politician moments is absolute self-control: To make it easier for the beaten people to maintain their own dignity. To show the victims and the whole country how seriously the situation is being taken, how seriously they are working on rapid aid. They are gestures, yes, but they count, for better or for worse.
All of this can ruin a moment of childish giggles, precisely because every moment counts. Because this laugh marks the loss of control that shouldn’t happen to a top politician with such an appearance. And if you are wondering whether something superhuman is being demanded of politicians – you should also ask yourself whether Angela Merkel would have undermined something like this in the first or last year of her chancellorship. The answer is no.
That is also why Merkel is Federal Chancellor, and campaigner Armin Laschet is now in need of explaining why he should be just as suitable for the office as she is. A few more mistakes like this – and he can save himself the trouble: The completely normal people of the middle, who Armin Laschet absolutely needs for an election victory, have an unerring instinct for things that “you don’t do”. And giggling in disaster – you really don’t do that.
Addition: Laschet has since apologized for his behavior. “All the more I regret the impression created by a conversation. This was inappropriate and I am sorry”, he tweeted.
.