Robert Habeck in Saxony
Between “craftsman’s darling” and “traitor to the people”
By Philip Scupin
7/15/2023 5:57 am
Economics Minister Habeck is touring through East Germany on his summer trip. With concerns about AfD successes, expectations of the Greens are increasing there. But Habeck missed his chance.
Robert Habeck is excited again. He should cut a roof tile. He pushes the press through vigorously, but the brick breaks quite awkwardly. “Did I do it with too much taste?” Habeck asks the head of the roofing shop. Yes, yes. It only works halfway on the second try. It doesn’t work with a crowbar – with the roof tiles they let the Minister of Economic Affairs get away with it during his visit on Friday morning. When it comes to heating, things are a bit different. Habeck did not take enough time for this, says Jörg Dittrich, the managing director of the roofing company in Ottendorf-Okrilla near Dresden. Dittrich describes the solution that was finally found for the law as “acceptable”.
It is a journey through complicated times in a complicated region for Habeck. He tours Saxony for two days. The Green politician is a stimulus for many here. In the spring, 90 percent of citizens in East Germany rejected his planned obligation to replace the heating system. In Saxony, but also in Thuringia and Brandenburg, the AfD faces a victory in the state elections next year. But Habeck will learn on these two days: It’s not just the heating law.
At the roofer in Ottendorf-Okrilla, they make every effort to ensure that the green visitor feels comfortable. Habeck is given work gloves and shown a model for green roofs. “Green stuff” is written on it and the minister smiles. “I knew that you like it,” says Jörg Dittrich. His 80 employees are already doing a lot of things that Habeck likes: They install the desired solar system for the citizens of Dresden and insulate their roofs in a climate-friendly manner. And yet Dittrich lacks support from Berlin. He needs affordable energy, he tells Habeck, and less bureaucracy. Above all, the lack of skilled workers is a problem. Politicians must give higher priority to vocational training. “We always say in the trade: no turning without hands.” If you forget us, you can forget your climate protection – that is the implicit threat to the minister.
Habeck wants to get back on the offensive
For Habeck, however, there is also an opportunity and he knows it. Anyone who wants to make a contribution to climate protection, he says during his factory visit, can do an apprenticeship in a trade. It is Habeck’s attempt to get back on the offensive after the torturous weeks of the heating debate: tell positive stories about climate protection – not those about bans and renunciations. The craft can be an important ally, especially in the East.
But the Green Minister also needs big industry. On Thursday he is with the Green Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock at the chip manufacturer Infineon in Dresden. Habeck and Baerbock look like fully veiled assistant doctors in their protective suits, you can only see their eyes. Here in the so-called clean room, dust particles must be kept to an absolute minimum in order to protect the semiconductors. Habeck is not here by accident, because chips are essential for the energy transition, for example for electric cars or heat pumps.
But just as important for the region: Infineon employs 3,500 people in Dresden. The company is currently building another production hall here, creating 1,000 new jobs. “It’s a strong signal of trust in the location,” says Habeck. However, this signal could cost him up to one billion euros, because Infineon demands that much funding from the state for the additional factory. When visiting the factory, Habeck advocates for help when it comes to key technologies.
Economics Minister considers the heating law to be hardly controversial
So the economic situation in Saxony is tense, but it could be worse. In any case, it is better than the mood. At a meeting with entrepreneurs, Habeck learns that the social situation in the country is on the brink. They fear that an AfD success in the 2024 state elections would damage the image of the region. After the conversation he was moved, says Habeck.
However, he does not really recognize his own responsibility for the upswing of the AfD. Anyone who accuses the Greens of asking too much of the citizens is confusing cause and effect, he says in an ntv interview. It was the Ukraine war, the energy and climate crises that demanded a lot from people. The Greens would fight against it. Habeck even considers the excitement about the heating law to be largely over. There was still a lot of hate and anger in April, but now the content of the law is hardly controversial. “We may already have a heated debate behind us.” When asked what he could do to push back the AfD, little is said: “Hopefully I can make a contribution to making the discussion calmer, more objective and more constructive.”
On the trip one would have liked to know what the people in the East expect from Habeck. But the Vice Chancellor only travels from one carefully planned factory appointment to the next. He didn’t come into contact with the citizens on the street for two days. According to the Ministry of Economic Affairs, he had to cancel a civil dialogue planned for Thursday at short notice. The Vice Chancellor had to stay longer in Berlin because the government’s cabinet meeting was postponed from Wednesday to Thursday because of the NATO summit.
Setting up a replacement format was obviously no longer possible. There must be sufficient lead time to organize a format in which people can have their say, his house says. In other words, there might have been more bullying than discussion. When visiting a gear manufacturer near Chemnitz, a group of demonstrators promptly stands in front of the factory gate and scolds Habeck for being a “traitor to the people” and a “warmonger”. The right-wing extremists “Free Saxony” had called.
Greens need to talk to people more
Nevertheless, the impression remains: Habeck missed an opportunity. Especially in the new federal states, the Greens should talk more to the people. Here, outside of the big cities, their issues either don’t matter – housing shortage, 30 km/h speed limit, transgender rights – or their policies are vehemently rejected: the heating law, open borders for refugees, arms deliveries to Ukraine.
Many people resent Habeck for wanting to bring the phase-out of coal forward to 2030 here as well and for having pushed the oil embargo against Russia as a minister, thereby jeopardizing jobs in the PCK refinery in Schwedt, Brandenburg. It was too risky for the minister to stand in such a mood on his summer tour on a Saxon market square. For security reasons, this is understandable. And yet it’s a shame for someone who has always prided himself on stepping into the ring where it hurts.