What are the top topics of tomorrow’s newspapers and how does the German daily press comment on these events? FOCUS online presents you with an overview of the opinions of the domestic press for the next day the evening before. You get the assessments from all over Germany from Freiburg to Hamburg and from Cottbus to Düsseldorf.
7.47 p.m .: Lambrecht is one of the strangest political figures on the Berlin floor. She is not the only one who has an undisguised desire for pleasure there. But staging helicopter flights to Sylt, chic posts on social networks and a generally lavish lifestyle in this way was unwise.
The fact that she was believed to have a passion for shopping rather than military technology and the structures of the Bundeswehr did not contribute to her popularity across the board. At the same time, it is another example of social democrats who, through honest but ultimately clumsy frankness, failed to win the favor of the Berlin bubble.
7.45 p.m .: Previous efforts to increase the number of donors, for example through more intensive advice, have failed. When people decide against organ donation, there are understandable, very personal and acceptable reasons for doing so. Convenience, repression or lack of information should not count among them. After all, it is a matter of life and death for thousands of patients who are on waiting lists and dependent on a transplant.
7.43 p.m .: The head of a consumer association is calling for an excess profit tax for those who, in difficult situations, make extra profit from people’s dependence on everyday goods. Usury should be prevented. If the threatened excess profit tax really does lead to falling prices, they would make sense. But it’s a treacherous tool.
After all, who determines the percentage from which the oversized profit accrues? There is a great danger that an excess profit tax will be demanded at every opportunity. And then at some point you have to make a decision: does society want a free market economy, state capitalism – or no capitalism at all.
7.41 p.m .: Nevertheless, the Lambrecht year was just another episode in the series of less gifted to incompetent holders of command and command of the Bundeswehr. Lambrecht’s predecessors didn’t cover themselves with fame any more than a number of male incumbents: Strauss, Scholz, Scharping, Jung… Among the 19 federal ministers of defense to date, there is hardly a handful who can attest to having done a good job.
Which is certainly due to the challenges. It’s about running a massive, highly complex organization with an enormous budget – which you hope will never have to be used for its very own purpose. Nevertheless, both their relatives and the surrounding civilian population, who are largely weaned from everything military, must always be convinced that this apparatus is necessary.
7.40 p.m .: The main problem of the climate movement is its own success: If a green climate protection minister launches the most ambitious energy transition reform package in 20 years, clean technologies are on the verge of a breakthrough worldwide and coal companies become green electricity companies, the demands of the Activists only get more and more radical to outdo the status quo.
There is no majority in this country for a climate policy that focuses on deindustrialization and loss of prosperity – this is the only way to implement the demands of the activists. Practice shows that only high-performing market economies are able to reduce their emissions through technology and efficiency.
7:20 p.m .: For the Bundestag, what the vernacular says about the pond and the frogs, which it is better not to ask when the pond has to be drained, applies. For years, the parliamentary groups have been arguing about the correct change to the electoral law. There were a number of viable compromise proposals. In the end, the reform failed because of the CSU, which is not willing to give up direct mandates and also rejects a reduction in the constituencies.
7:18 p.m .: The new boss or the new boss in the defense department would need a magic wand. There is so much to change in the Bundeswehr that hardly anything seems to be feasible here with earthly means. After all, the special fund, the camouflage budget of 100 billion euros, provides a financial basis for restructuring the armed forces. Since the beginning of the millennium, they had been trimmed for foreign assignments, later borrowed from conscription and made into family-friendly employers.
Now the Bundeswehr should be able to defend Germany and Europe in open battle against potential opponents, preferably Russia. But there is a lack of functional equipment. It’s a joke: 20 countries around the world rely on Leopard 2 tanks, and other predator models are also in demand internationally. Only in Germany tanks often do not come out of the garage because of defects.
7:16 p.m .: It would have been better if the government and opposition parties in the Bundestag could have agreed on a joint proposal much earlier. It is important for the acceptance of democracy that the right to vote is seen as a fair system by a very large majority. Now the new electoral law will surely end up before the Federal Constitutional Court.
7:07 p.m .: As in hardly any other ministry, the employees are trying to prove that the boss is incompetent. It is the mammoth authority itself with its overly bureaucratic procurement system and its resistance to normal management guidelines. In this regard, Christine Lambrecht is also right: She did the job no worse than most of her predecessors.
But she herself is responsible for her poor performance, which resulted in an amateurish and basically cynical New Year’s Eve video. With her amateurish performances, she makes it easier for her successor to make his debut. However, one should not be so naïve and believe that the Bundeswehr would only be ready for a real turning point through a change in personnel.
7:05 p.m.: She certainly couldn’t bring the ailing army into shape in a year, but under her command there was no sign of improvement either. Scholz should therefore have recalled her earlier. In fact, he had already half-disempowered her. He makes his own decisions about the delivery of weapons, and he entrusts the procurement of ammunition to the Chancellery. Half the leadership is not enough for a turning point.
6:57 p.m .: Party tactics or other irrelevant considerations must not play a role in Lambrecht’s successor. That would damage the trust of the servicemen and women in their successors from the outset. Comprehensive previous knowledge of the Bundeswehr would also be important in order to gain the confidence of the troops. In addition, there is simply not enough time for someone to familiarize themselves with it from the ground up.
6:52 p.m .: The job is already an impertinence in normal times. But now, with the Russian war in Ukraine, it takes a lot of persuasion to get someone to take the job. That’s also why it’s good that Scholz let it leak out that he would forego parity. On the one hand, it can’t be about gender issues now, but only about competence.
On the other hand, it is still conceivable that a woman will call the shots for the fourth time in a row: With Eva Högl and Siemtje Möller, two SPD politicians are considered to have profound knowledge of the Bundeswehr. Should it be one of the two, she would no longer have to deal with the prejudice of only making a career because of the quota. For that reason alone, breaking parity was a smart move. Unfortunately, there have not been many of these around the Ministry of Defense in recent months.
6.48 p.m .: The new boss must finally turn the overly bureaucratic Ministry of Defense, which is riddled with lobbying interests, upside down. This requires a person at the top with assertiveness and authority. It must be respected and fully supported by the troops, the people, the Party, the government and industry at the same time. If these conditions are met, neither the career nor a possible election victory at the end of the legislative period should be in the foreground when exercising the office.
6.45 p.m .: Lambrecht regularly sent out statements in which mosquitoes became elephants. Most of the time, these little things were announced in a grand manner. No matter how disastrous the situation could be, Lambrecht still found good words for what she announced – no matter how small it was. In this context, the helmets instead of heavy weapons for Ukraine are unforgettable – an international joke.
The broken-down Bundeswehr comforted her with protective vests. Anyone who appears like this for a whole year shouldn’t be surprised if he or she gets malicious headlines. Lambrecht’s parallel world was then garnished with strange appearances. The minister’s son in the Bundeswehr plane, the visit to the troops in Mali in heels and finally a euphoric New Year’s Eve video in front of a banging backdrop, while live fire was being fired at in Ukraine and rescue workers in Berlin were shot with blank guns. The minister showed no sense of appropriate demeanour.
6.40 p.m .: Mayor Marcus König, himself a credible fighter for a diverse and colorful urban society, can no longer shirk a word of power. The statement that “everything has been said” on his part and that the Integration Council itself is “the right forum” for clarification is unsatisfactory. It is precisely in such situations that the Lord Mayor needs to have his say.
It is simply unbearable to find representatives in an advisory body of the city council who have made inhuman comments. Tolerance ends where others are discriminated against. This is all the more true in a city with the history and standards of Nuremberg.
6:38 p.m .: There is not a word in her explanation of possible mistakes and omissions. Instead, she cites the media focus on her person as the top and most important reason. With all due respect – that is an outrage. With her demonstrative disinterest in the office at the beginning – actually she would have preferred to become Minister of the Interior – and numerous political and PR mishaps since then, she has left “the media” no other option than to report very critically about her person.
The highlight and end of all the mishaps is their embarrassing New Year’s Eve video. In doing so, she disgraced herself, her office and the country internationally. She can’t blame the media for that, she has to look to herself alone.
6:35 p.m .: Of course the defense department is a shark tank. In addition, it was never the favorite department of the former justice minister. But Lambrecht could have simply turned down the ministerial post and resigned from federal politics as originally announced. Instead, the will to power prevailed. Now it’s to be hoped that someone who really cares about the troops will move into the Department of Defense.
6:05 p.m .: The compromise to which Lützerath is sacrificed remains a heavy burden for the Greens. Irrespective of the soundness of their arguments and a legally binding legal position, they alienate potential newcomers and unsettle even long-serving supporters. That is the price to be paid for sharing power. Greta Thunberg says “partisan politics will not solve the climate crisis”. If that were the case, it would be impossible to cope with at all. Climate change cannot be forced without democratic majorities.
5.45 p.m .: In the case of Lambrecht, one thing in particular was decisive for her resignation: she had no idea about the military and never found access to the soldiers. In the Ukraine war with all its upheavals, she seemed driven. The resignation was overdue. Even if Lambrecht goes – the problems remain.
She or he has to fill the “turning point” proclaimed by Chancellor Scholz with life, reform the Bundeswehr and, above all, build trust again. What does it take? Whoever steps up to the head of the Bundeswehr should first of all dare to form their own opinion. “Owd – Olaf wants that”, with this abbreviation Scholz once ruled as mayor in Hamburg and probably also in the chancellery. There must be agreements between the defense department and the chancellery. But the abbreviation “Owd” should be a thing of the past.
5:43 p.m .: A reform of the electoral law is inevitable. Due to the change in the party landscape with more and more small and medium-sized parties, which have different strengths in the different regions of Germany, the personalized proportional representation system no longer works as it was intended when the republic was founded. If you just let it go on like this, the Bundestag could soon be bursting at the seams with a four-digit number of MPs. This can no longer be explained to the electorate.
5.40 p.m .: The British Prime Minister and the French President have had enough. One had to take stock of 2022 as the year in which the UK saw the most massive strike wave in a generation – from the railway workers to the National Health Service (NHS). In the new year, the willingness of the unions to fight is growing.
Emmanuel Macron, on the other hand, threw a political explosive device in his New Year’s speech when he announced that he would carry out his “reform” of the French pension system. Maxim: “If you live longer, you have to work longer.” According to observers, the chances for a powerful response from the working class in both countries are not bad. It’s been enough there for a long time.
5:35 p.m .: It is also not very difficult to feel deep contempt for this strange meeting in the luxury ski resort between private jets and swank. The absurd prices for overnight stays, the crowding out of residents, the damage to the environment and climate – many of the undesirable developments of capitalism can be studied in Davos in an exemplary manner.
Nevertheless, the meeting is extremely important – especially in a time of multiple crises. After all, how can they be solved if not by exchanging top economic and political leaders? Questions on which the future of billions of people depends are waiting for an answer. What will become of globalization? What from capitalism? How to organize security in Europe against Russia? All of these questions and a few more need to be discussed – not only, but also in Davos.
5:24 p.m .: Christine Lambrecht made the best decision at the end. After a little over a year at the helm of the Defense Ministry, she too has realized what many of her subordinates, and not just them, have long known: that she is the wrong person for this office and the office is the wrong one for her. (…)
Especially if it is true that Lambrecht had been thinking about resigning for some time, it is difficult to understand why the chancellor and his party have needed days since the Berliner Spatzen first whistle to arrange the successor. (…) Rather, it seemed difficult to find a person who would meet all of the chancellor’s criteria, apparently including continued gender parity in the cabinet. Scholz himself is also under pressure: he cannot afford a second mistake.
5:19 p.m .: It has now become clear at the latest that expertise would be an advantage for one or the other ministerial office. Party representation or gender issues should no longer play a role in such cases. One can perhaps allow oneself this luxury in largely insignificant government offices. But not where experts are crucial. And that’s exactly what the Ministry of Defense is asking for now. Appointing a non-partisan expert who has actually seen the inside of a barracks in front of his ministerial office would therefore send the right signal. But one that those responsible for government lack the courage to do.
5:18 p.m .: The Bundeswehr has had to endure some defense ministers in recent years who have not been successful. The last ideal cast was Peter Struck. The Social Democrat left office in 2005. The result of the subsequent miscasting is a troupe that lacks pretty much everything. In peacetime, this did not bother anyone. Things have changed since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Against this background, the criticism of Lambrecht also affects the Chancellor: Olaf Scholz has let his hapless minister dabble in office for far too long. The turning point he proclaimed aptly describes the radically changed security situation in Europe under Putin. The real scandal in this inglorious cabinet piece is that the chancellor held on to his unsuitable party friend for far too long.
5:17 p.m .: Heil makes an offer that can create a win-win situation for everyone: for employees who are undergoing professional training, as well as for companies that secure the skilled workers in this way. And that ultimately helps society as a whole, because Germany’s economic strength rises and falls with the number of skilled workers.
5:16 p.m.: It is a moral bankruptcy that about one in ten people on earth is starving. Oxfam’s analysis, according to which at least 1.7 billion workers live in countries where inflation is greater than wage growth, is also socially explosive. Because inflation not only eats away at the income of the poor, it also eats away at their souls. To make matters worse, even in many western countries, the middle class is increasingly threatened with decline. So there is no need to be surprised at the so often lamented polarization of society.
5.15 p.m .: The world is completely different for German companies. This can also be seen very clearly at the current World Economic Forum in Davos. While the flagship corporations of the former export world champion Germany have been able to successfully go about their business for decades, globalization is now becoming much more complicated. In the meantime, not a single one from “good old Germany” ranks among the top 100 companies by market value.
The global competition is getting bigger and bigger. More than ever, politicians must support their own companies and consistently strengthen Germany as a business location. In addition to a well-qualified workforce, these include above all competitive taxes. When it comes to foreign trade, Germany needs to become more pragmatic and a good deal more selfish. That means: Instead of “change through trade”, more trade for one’s own benefit – this primarily and most intensively with the friendly democracies, but not only.
Also read: SPD politician creams off – despite resignation, Lambrecht still collects up to 224,000 euros in salary
