“Caren Miosga”
“There is no government anymore,” says Sigmar Gabriel
Caren Miosga is supposed to be about the US election – but former Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel uses the opportunity to settle scores with his party.
Only at the very end does it become clear why Caren Miosga invited the fired SPD man Sigmar Gabriel to her show about the US election. Of course, as Foreign Minister, Gabriel once personally met then US President Donald Trump. And yes, even today, as chairman of the “Atlantic Bridge,” Gabriel is still committed to deepening relations with the USA.
But Gabriel can do one thing much better than explaining the Trump phenomenon: railing against the traffic lights.
And so moderator Miosga didn’t miss the opportunity to jump thematically across the Atlantic again just five minutes before the “Tagesthemen” and ask Gabriel about the disastrous state of the traffic light coalition. How does he think that Scholz no longer even invites his Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) to his economic summits?
Gabriel delivers: “There is obviously no government anymore,” he shouts. “If there was a government working together, this wouldn’t happen.”
So does Germany have to prepare for new elections soon? No, says Gabriel, everyone in the traffic lights is afraid of that. After all, the SPD, FDP and Greens have fallen brutally in the polls since the last federal election in September 2021. “New elections would be suicide for fear of death,” says the ex-minister. Laughter from the audience.
Gabriel and Scholz will no longer be friends
In any case, Gabriel does not hold back from criticizing party colleague Olaf Scholz. There is still an old wound gaping: After the 2017 federal election, Scholz prevented Gabriel from becoming foreign minister again. At Miosga, Gabriel obviously wants to prove that he can still do it. He likes to explain that the Chancellor missed the unique opportunity to free Europe from its dependence on the USA.
At the beginning of the year, when the US Senate was arguing about extending aid to Ukraine, Scholz should have given a risky speech, says Gabriel. The Chancellor should have said: “We see that the (USA) won’t do it, so Ukraine will now get 50 or 60 billion euros from us.” Scholz could have financed the transfer to Kyiv from new debts, says Gabriel.
What would Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP), who has defended the debt brake to the hilt for years, have said about this? No matter, because neither moderator Miosga nor the USA experts at the table question Gabriel’s bold suggestion. Everyone at the table agrees: economic and military dependence on the USA can still be dangerous for Germany – especially if Trump wins.
- Political scientist Cathryn Clüver Ashbrook still hopes that things will turn out differently. Kamala Harris has mobilized female voters from all generations, she says. When it comes to abortion, voters would ask themselves: “What rights do I have over my own body, over my own life?”
- Election campaign strategist Julius van de Laar describes observations from the swing state of Pennsylvania: “Prices have exploded, for milk and for fuel.” That helps Trump. “Many people therefore think that the current course is the wrong one.”
- With a view to a possible Trump victory, Jörg Wimalasena from the daily newspaper “Welt” says: That would be terrible for Germany. Trump will raise tariffs, “Germany is absolutely marked as an enemy.” Wimalasena blames Trump’s strength on his competitor Kamala Harris and the Democrats, who have been pursuing “anti-worker policies for 40 years.”
Sigmar Gabriel: SPD is imitating the mistakes of the Democrats
Sigmar Gabriel also agrees with this analysis. Instead of taking care of the material interests of their voters, the Democrats would engage in “cultural election campaigning.” And then he takes the next dig: “When I look at my party, they seem to have copied it.”
Caren Miosga was actually supposed to be about the US election on Tuesday. Because Sigmar Gabriel was at the table, there was a lot of talk about what was going wrong in Germany under Olaf Scholz. At the end, Gabriel says: “If the next government is as bad as this one, then in 2029 we will be where France is today” – caught between left-wing and right-wing extremists. What Gabriel doesn’t say, but perhaps thinks: It would be good if the next government included someone like Sigmar Gabriel again.
Source: Stern
I have been working in the news industry for over 6 years, first as a reporter and now as an editor. I have covered politics extensively, and my work has appeared in major newspapers and online news outlets around the world. In addition to my writing, I also contribute regularly to 24 Hours World.
