Saxony Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer skillfully moderated the coalition’s dispute over pension reform in the “Illner” and called for more freedom for the futures market. He didn’t just receive applause for this.
Maybrit Illner’s political talk on Thursday night became a cruel stocktake. The broadcast question was “City, country, fear – will Germany be relegated?” But the real question is different: Is the black-and-red government collapsing because of ongoing disagreements, such as the current pension debate and lack of reform?
Right in the middle: Saxony Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer (CDU). It appears he is starting to downplay the current dispute in the pension debate. However, this was denied by Green Party leader Felix Banaszak, district administrator Tanja Schweiger (Free Voter) from Regensburg, journalist Michael Bröcker (editor-in-chief of “Table Media”) and Elisa Hoven, professor of criminal law at Leipzig University.
The debate on pensions was sparked by the “Young Group” group of parliamentarians in the European Union. 18 young MPs threatened to refuse to support the pension reform and thereby jeopardize the black-red coalition’s small majority in the Bundestag (twelve votes).
Could the government fail because of this? “The question didn’t even come up,” claimed CDU Vice President Kretschmer. This discussion was “more than necessary” and people were even grateful for it. “If we in this country have every discussion, every technical dispute about what is right or wrong, questions about power, whether the coalition failed or not, then we lose.” The fear of division is simply a narrative from “journalists in the Berlin bubble”.
But Table Media editor-in-chief Michael Bröcker isn’t letting him get away with it. “Mr Kretschmer, that is simply naive,” the journalist said harshly. With a small majority in the Bundestag, any question about content is automatically a question of power and “not a network of journalists”. Bröcker let Kretschmer carry out his strategy of evaluating the conflict as a normal debate.
“Merz promises a lot and doesn’t deliver on a lot”
Tanja Schweiger then explained that the problem was deeper than just political debates in Berlin. The district administrator of Regensburg (Free Voter) summed up the frustration of the city government. And this was also conveyed directly to Federal Chancellor Friedrich Merz. “Merz promised a lot in his election campaign and failed to deliver on a lot,” he criticized. “Traffic lights didn’t do much good and GroKo didn’t reform either. What has changed now? People in this country are asking themselves.” Credibility is lost. “The community is no longer included, which is also the reason why they no longer trust the state.”
Leipzig criminal law professor Elisa Hoven agrees with him from a technical point of view, seeing citizens’ loss of trust in politics as a mixture of “unwillingness” to see problems, “inability” to solve them (a bureaucratic buzzword), and “dishonesty.” If promises are “necessarily abandoned” after the election, we should not be surprised by a loss of trust, Hoven said. His advice to politicians: “Politicians can trust citizens to have a greater sense of reality.”
The entire group painted a gloomy picture of Germany’s economic situation. Green Party leader Felix Banaszak spoke of a “slow decline”. A huge sales market in China, cheap gas from Russia, US security guarantees: “Everything has collapsed before our eyes,” Banaszak said. “We haven’t found the strength to draw proper conclusions from this,” he said. “Germany’s economic model is fundamentally challenged by changes in the world situation.”
Journalist Bröcker supports this with a huge amount: 200 billion euros. This is the amount invested by German entrepreneurs in the US compared to Germany in recent years. “These are the funds we need for the technologies of the future, for the environmentally friendly transformation of the economy,” said Bröcker.
“It requires staff and money”
“States are the ones that are slowing growth the most,” District Administrator Schweiger said and again pointed to bureaucracy, such as the many documentation requirements in the health care system, that lead to higher costs for taxpayers: “We were surprised when health care costs went up. A clinic doctor has to document his care for three hours a day. And there are three more people in government who make sure he does everything right. This requires personnel and money.”
Prime Minister Kretschmer focused on the topic of economic strength. The logic: “If we’re not economically strong, we can’t invest in defense, then we can’t do that with pension funds – then we’re really finished.” Therefore, the country must create more opportunities: If, for example, the automotive industry is no longer a driving force in Germany, then the economy must be given more freedom to shape future markets such as genetic engineering.
He described sticking to annual climate protection figures as a big deal. “The 2040 climate target limits us so much that many things will no longer be possible after that,” the CDU politician warned. Economy and Energy Minister Katherina Reiche (CDU) is “locked in” by the legal situation, but greater “flexibility” is needed for Germany to remain competitive.
Something Green Banaszak certainly doesn’t agree with. He criticized Minister Reiche for not “renewing” the energy transition, but rather “everything that was successful in recent years is now being slowed down.” While Banaszak calls for more digitalization and network expansion to be less dependent on liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the US, Kretschmer sees the solution in reducing barriers for the industry.
