Thursday November 11, 2021
“We decided to …”
Union now calls traffic light “left yellow”
Apparently after internal agreement, the Union calls the upcoming government made up of the SPD, Greens and FDP “left-wing yellow coalition”. But the term has not yet fully established itself in the Union faction.
Framing is everything, even inexperienced political strategists know that, and without framing everything is nothing. It is important to provide a message with the desired “frame” so that it works as you imagine it. In 2009, for example, the then federal government made up of the Union and FDP did not call itself “black and yellow”, but “Christian-liberal coalition”.
The Union has also found a term for the red-green-yellow traffic light that frames this alliance in the desired way. “According to the press, more than 200 women and men are currently preparing the left-wing yellow coalition agreement,” calls the parliamentary manager of the Union faction, Michael Grosse-Brömer, with obvious pleasure to use this expression. In his speech in the Bundestag, he advocates increasing the Parliament’s main committee from 31 to 39 people.
The main committee is decided by a majority of the traffic light parties after Grosse-Brömer’s speech. It is a transitional body: until the formation of the new federal government, it will replace all other committees of the Bundestag, which can only be formed when the precise layout of the future ministries is clear.
Vice Thorsten Frei hits a similar horn. In the debate about the situation on the Polish-Belarusian border, the CDU politician says that he hopes that the SPD will not allow the Greens to pull it “to the left” and that he is “particularly excited about the FDP, which is basically that Opposite of what says the Greens want “.
“Greetings from Linksgrün”
Frei’s party friend Johann Wadephul takes up the new term directly and addresses the “dear left-wing yellow coalition”. When he tries to use the expression a second time, he gets confused, instead says “left-green coalition”, improves himself and declares: “That’s what we’re looking for …”. Then he interrupts himself again. Possibly he wanted to say: “Left-wing yellow coalition – we have agreed in the Union faction to put this label on the traffic lights”, but he does not say that.
“Dear Mr. Frei or Mr. Wadephul”, countered the SPD member Lars Castellucci, who spoke after Wadephul, “many greetings from left green or left yellow or whatever: Don’t worry about the middle. You better be careful that you don’t move too far to the right. “
The Union’s framing has apparently not yet fully established itself. Union faction leader Ralph Brinkhaus is attacking the not yet existing coalition in the debate on the pandemic policy with great vehemence. But he speaks of “traffic lights” or “future governing parties that are in coalition negotiations”. Ironically, the opposition leader does not use the new label.