Like Friedrich Merz his coalition Schönredet

Sunday evening, 6 p.m., Berlin-Mitte. The Chancellor has committed himself to a historically proven communication line for the summer interview in the ARD. And he holds them consistently.

The line is: We can do it!

As often and critically, moderator Markus Preiß asks the failed judge elections in the Bundestag, Friedrich Merz always answers the same thing. “Not nice, but not a crisis.” “Really no broken leg.” “Nothing that makes us change.” And so forth.

Okay, a few milligrams of self -criticism mixes Merz here and there. That resistance to the SPD candidate Frauke Brosius-Gersdorf built up in his Union faction: that was underestimated. “We should have realized that there is great resentment,” he says. “That won’t happen to us again.”

But otherwise: great climate in Berlin. This even applies to the weather. When the interview begins, it is still a pleasant 22 degrees in the government district. The thunderstorms pass north of the capital, the sun shines subtle.

And so Merz can practice on the terrace of the ARD main studio, at least without an optical contradiction in a comfortable relaxation rhetoric. The joint plan of the Union and the SPD is “kept precisely”, he praises himself and his coalition. “There has never been a doubt that we also bring what we have agreed in the coalition agreement.” And that will stay that way.

In fact, things were going quite well for black and red recently. The government brought the budget draft to the Bundestag before the holidays, while after some back and forth the federal states, the legislative pact called the growth booster in the Federal Council passed. The fact that the number of asylums decreases significantly was also able to attach itself as a PR win, even if the development began months before he took office.

Okay that, contrary to all election promises, the electricity tax is not reduced for private customers: this did not look nice to say it with Merz, especially since the coalition fractions and government are publicly disputed. But otherwise the government start – even in view of the generally adverse circumstances – was considered reasonably successful. After the almost stumbled chancellor’s election, the encoderage had also noticed noticeably.

But that only applied until the debacle on Friday. Shortly before the planned vote on three constitutional judges, Merz and his parliamentary group leader Jens Spahn had to recognize that the Union could not provide the necessary votes. As a result, the choice was postponed after the summer break, although no one really knows how the majorities should come about. The SPD has already announced that he wanted to stick to its candidate.

Even the Federal President saw himself resorted to warn on Sunday. The coalition “damaged itself,” he said, asked for a rapid agreement. “This is about authority and functionality of the constitutional court.”

The Chancellor would like to know it completely differently. There had been a lot of argument about judge elections before, he says. It was only in January that the Greens in the election committee blocked the CDU judge candidate Robert Seegmüller. He says, he says, with the SPD the further procedure with the SPD “in peace”. “There is no time pressure now.”

The more moderator Preiß tries to challenge Merz, the more the Chancellor wastes. Is Union faction leader Jens Spahn still the right man? “Clearly yes,” replies the Chancellor without hesitation. And what does he say about the criticism of the former CDU state director and constitutional judge Peter Müller, who complained about a “blatant leadership failure”. “In this case, I expressly share this assessment of my friend Peter Müller,” the CDU boss returns dryly.

The motto applies to Merz: crisis? Which crisis? Or as he puts it: “The whole thing is undramatic.” The coalition provides and will continue to deliver. “And that’s why we work through the summer break more or less.”

Only sometimes is a thoughtful chancellor. Then when he notes the judge elections: “We have probably all overwhelmed each other a bit in the past few days.” Or that: “We have difficult majority in the German Bundestag.” Or that: “It doesn’t get much easier in the Federal Council.”

Obviously, Merz really has no idea how he and Spahn want to bring together the two -thirds majority after the summer break. In any case, he does not want to comment on a renewed candidacy by the SPD candidate Brosius-Gersdorf. And the Union should not talk to the left in the future. “The decision of the CDU from 2017 applies,” says Merz and means the decision of the Federal Party Day not to work with AfD or with the left.

At this point a small fact check was allowed. The party conference in question did not take place in 2017, but in December 2018. At that time, a certain Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer won the fight against the CDU chairmanship. Your competitor Merz lost.

In this respect, it almost seems understandable that this event is incorrectly sorted in the Chancellor’s memory.