Corona warning Karl Lauterbach can only campaign with personal protection. Nevertheless, he is often on the road because he really wants to win a direct mandate. And that’s not all.
“Tüt! Tüt!” Behind Karl Lauterbach is a woman with a walker. The SPD politician steps aside. “Now you almost ran me over,” he says. There is a reproachful undertone in his voice. It’s probably meant ironically, but you don’t know one hundred percent. The woman walks past him unmoved. Then she says, “Maybe I would have liked to do that.”
Karl Lauterbach (58) has never experienced such an election campaign as this time. On the one hand, the corona reminder is now mega-prominent. Everyone recognizes him – even with a face mask. “Man, now I can see him for real,” says a woman packed with bags as he passes her on the main street of Cologne-Dellbrück. A comrade asks “Karl” if he doesn’t want to distribute little blocks with the SPD imprinted on them. But no, Karl doesn’t want that. Karl doesn’t distribute anything. He doesn’t make any speeches either. He just walks down Dellbrücker Hauptstrasse. That alone creates a smaller crowd.
Election campaign only with personal protection
So far so good. The downside is that two bodyguards follow him every step of the way. Bodyguards, as they used to say. “There were several situations that I could not have mastered without the support of the Federal Criminal Police Office,” says Lauterbach. “If I didn’t have personal security, I wouldn’t be able to campaign like this. I also have a lot to do with threats from right-wing groups. I have to be careful.”
His almost uninterrupted warnings on all channels have made him the enemy of all Corona skeptics. Strangers attacked his car near his apartment in Cologne, and he was attacked aggressively several times. However, he is convinced that those who hate him because of his corona policy are only a small minority. That’s why he doesn’t need a better place on the state list. He is in position 23 in North Rhine-Westphalia – actually pretty far down, considering how well known he is. “I’m not interested in the list position,” he says. “I will win straight away and that is the most important thing.”
Serious competitors
In its constituency of Leverkusen / Cologne IV, the CDU also competes with a political heavyweight: Serap Güler, Armin Laschet’s state secretary for integration in North Rhine-Westphalia, looks down from countless posters. The 41-year-old is the daughter of Turkish “guest workers” and could therefore be an appealing choice for small businesses with foreign roots in the multicultural district of Cologne-Mülheim.
“In contrast to Mr. Lauterbach, I live in this constituency,” she says. “I know the problems of people, especially those who have suffered a lot from the lockdown that Mr. Lauterbach has always vehemently called for. The reality of his life completely misses that of the people who live in this constituency and are far away from Harvard.” Lauterbach is an adjunct professorship at the US elite university. He read another Harvard study that night, he said on the tour.
The Greens, who compete here with Nyke Slawik, are also on the market square in Dellbrück. She could become the first transgender woman in the Bundestag. “Everything is currently possible for us,” says the 27-year-old. “I really appreciate Mr. Lauterbach when it comes to his positions, but I do believe that many people in the SPD are disappointed when it comes to climate protection issues.”
Karl Lauterbach as Minister of Health?
Lauterbach goes to her and greets her amicably. “I find the top candidate of the Greens extremely competent and personable,” he assures. The two say goodbye. “Wish you all the best, all the best,” he says at the end. The Greens have a difficult position against him insofar as his climate demands go well beyond those of the SPD. That is why he is also supported by the campaign organizer Campact. The movement tries to prevent the re-election of several CDU MPs who it sees as a blocker in climate protection or as right-leaning – among them is the former head of the constitutional protection, Hans-Georg Maaßen.
Campact receives prominent support in mobilizing first voices for Lauterbach from star pianist Igor Levit, undercover reporter Günter Wallraff and BAP singer Wolfgang Niedecken. They all promote him in short videos. Serap Güler wonders about it, because these people would otherwise like to see diversity represented: “And now they are taking action against this diversity, which I represent as a young woman with a migration history.”
Someone still wants to speak to Lauterbach, but he doesn’t have much time left. He still has to go to the pedestrian zone in Leverkusen and then quickly to the train station: He’s once again a guest on a talk show, this time “Maybrit Illner”. The topic is of course Corona. There is one thing that Lauterbach doesn’t like to talk about very much. That is the question of what he wants to do after the general election. “I don’t want to do it like Christian Lindner, that I’m already speculating which office I want to hold.” But what if he were offered to succeed Jens Spahn? He as Federal Minister of Health? He squirms a little. “I would not turn down the office.” So yes.
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