Ob you can already speak of a comeback? Jens Spahn once carried it to the top in federal politics at a very young age. Federal Health Minister, deputy party leader, ambitions for the chancellor candidacy. The collapse of the CDU in the Bundestag elections followed, promoted by the supposedly gifted man himself through very moderate performance in his office. After the federal election, portraits were therefore written that showed pity for an unfinished talent who was threatened with ending his career in the back rows of the Bundestag. But Spahn somehow managed to get himself elected deputy chairman of his parliamentary group, and the fact that he is responsible for business and energy there has ensured an enormous public presence these weeks.
For example, it earns him an invitation to appear on Maybrit Illner’s talk show. On Thursday evening, under the heading “Will the rescue package save us?”, the focus will be on energy, prices and jobs. And you have to say that Spahn does his job quite well. He has familiarized himself with the rather complex matter of gas and electricity markets, as he makes clear in the asides. At the same time, Spahn does not get bogged down in the details, but forms his insights into acute questions for the federal government regarding its efforts to get the energy price crisis under control before it hits the citizens with full force.
Pretty much the opposite of a first-name friend
However, the double debacle of Economics Minister Robert Habeck with the gas surcharge and the fact that small and medium-sized businesses were not taken into account in the rescue package also leaves quite a lot of room for attack. Shortly before the start of the heating period, it is not clear to anyone what energy costs are to be expected, says Spahn. He does not go so far as to want to fix the prices for basic needs, as does Verena Bentele, President of the VdK social association. But he makes it clear that he wants to free up significant sums in order to keep prices down. He brings the EEG pot with its almost 20 billion into play. However, he does not say that the money has already been earmarked elsewhere by the Ministry of Finance. Being in the opposition must have some advantage.
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Hubertus Heil sits opposite Spahn. The social democrat is pretty much the opposite of his close friend from the CDU. The career of the labor and social affairs minister is a smooth river, he already held the job in the last Merkel cabinet. In terms of his party, Heil is also very successful in this, in a measured, unpretentious and unobtrusive way. He does not seem to aspire to higher office. You can guess why Olaf Scholz appreciates him.