Would you like to become a finance department head without a degree, or a defense or justice minister without technical expertise? This is the trend in Germany. However, the decoupling of competence and authority continues to erode the reputation of politics.
Suddenly ministers: Doreen Denstädt and Bernhard Stengele will be responsible for justice and energy in the state of Thuringia in the future.
Alexander Kissler is the political editor of the NZZ in Germany.
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In Thuringia, a clerk without a legal degree has now been nominated as Minister of Justice and an actor as Minister of Energy. Doreen Denstädt and Bernhard Stengele will soon be given these new tasks because the Thuringian Greens have a low staffing level but high claims to identity politics. When in doubt, quota beats quality. As bizarre as the case from central Germany may seem, professional qualifications are becoming less and less the requirement for ministerial posts. But when the exception threatens to become the rule, citizens no longer take politics seriously.
Although the currently most prominent non-specialist head of department is an experienced lawyer, she had hardly any contact with the Bundeswehr before she was appointed Defense Minister. For Christine Lambrecht, these were the worst possible conditions, and things have gotten worse and worse in recent months. No Berlin cabinet member is less popular, no one is considered more incompetent.
Political craftsmanship does not cover every gap in knowledge
Lambrecht’s foreseeable failure shows that one cannot read up on every subject quickly, cannot cover every gap in knowledge with political craftsmanship, and cannot rely on the apparatus in every situation. Those who hold command and command of the armed forces in peacetime should not just know them from hearsay. It takes intuition, experience and expertise.
The gap between authority and competence is particularly noticeable in this office, especially in geopolitically turbulent times. Lambrecht’s Christian Democratic predecessor, who was also unfamiliar with the field, the doctor Ursula von der Leyen, left the Federal Ministry of Defense as a failure.
However, someone who is responsible for the penal system and legal training without ever having attended a legal seminar can hardly do justice to his special responsibility for office and authority. Doreen Denstädt is a clerk at the Thuringian police trust center and police chief inspector.
The Greens are now praising the designated Minister of Justice for her “successful administrative work”, “direct access to people”, “high awareness of structures” and years of commitment against racism. Denstädt is “as a black woman” an “excellent sign” – a symbol. Since the Ministry of Justice in Erfurt is a “Ministry for Migration, Justice and Consumer Protection”, meaning that law only ranks second, this garland of words has a core of truth. Apparently, moral policy is more important than legal policy.
When attitude is more important than competence
The ideological overhaul of the justice ministries is not limited to Thuringia. When left-wing parties are involved in government, they rarely miss the portfolio. The tendency to use legal means to support the restructuring of society is too great. In the federal state of Berlin, Lena Kreck, a member of the Left Party and holder of the first state law examination, heads the Senate Department for Justice, Diversity and Anti-Discrimination.
In Hamburg, the Green Senator Anna Gallina heads the authority for justice and consumer protection, for which she qualified by studying political science, philosophy and public law. In Saxony, on the other hand, there is a state ministry for justice and for democracy, Europe and equality. It is headed by the green politician Katja Meier. She studied political science, history and sociology, not jurisprudence.
On the one hand, it may be consistent to lower the technical hurdles for running ministries, which are burdened with numerous ideological secondary and primary purposes. Then attitude actually becomes more important than competence. On the other hand, the signal is fatal and by no means “excellent”: professional expertise, that means, is dispensable if the attitude is right. In this way, the governments make a remarkable comment on the lack of skilled workers, which is lamented by everyone.
Three worrying trends
Not only in the national defense and in the legal system, but also in the administration of public funds, a professional minimum would be sorely needed. How else is respect to grow in the eyes of citizens and subordinates? How can an incumbent without his own special knowledge be immune to the whisperings of interested parties? Simply hoping for the talent of politically reliable career changers is a risky bet.
This method was used in Schleswig-Holstein, for example, where a kindergarten teacher works as finance minister for the Greens. In Brandenburg, the Social Democratic Minister of Finance and Europe can look back on training as a government assistant. The green Berlin finance senator, on the other hand, studied history and art history for ten years without graduating.
In none of these and the numerous other cases does the low professional qualification justify a moral value judgment – and of course a bet can work out, the non-specialist can turn out to be a stroke of luck. Actor Ronald Reagan became an eminent President of the United States. However, he had no specific departmental responsibility.
Three questionable tendencies are condensed in the triumph of the non-specialist ministers. First, promotion without appropriate qualifications is a staggering demonstration of the superiority of the parties. You decide who to nominate. One does not necessarily qualify for a ministerial office through ministerial achievements, but through successful struggles within the party. Not quality, but perseverance and network suitability are awarded.
In the egalitarian wonderland
In the case of the Greens, there is also a stupid, thorough thinking about parity. Even if Thuringia’s Prime Minister Bodo Ramelow had doubts about the suitability of Denstädt and Stengele, he would have to accept them at the cabinet table. That’s what the coalition agreement says.
Secondly, the rotating responsibility of professional politicians hides destructive thinking, namely the conviction that in principle everyone can do anything. In the egalitarian wonderland of left-wing parties, no one should stand out from the rest. Otherwise an image of man based on respect for simply every CV would crack. The illusion collapsed that all people have the same talents, they just have to be brought into the right structure.
Thirdly, and above all, the inflation of non-specialists expresses an enormous disdain for the respective subject. Anyone who is really a specialist is seen as a “specialist idiot” because they allegedly lack what the unqualified are supposed to stand for, the ability to think in context. At the head of a specialist authority, however, specialist competence is required.
Nobody would let a librarian do heart surgery or let a gardener build a house. But everyone should be allowed to tinker around in the open heart of the republic, in the ministries that administer security, rights and the citizens’ funds in trust. The Federal Republic must be very lucky if such contempt for performance does not take bitter revenge one day.