Why this democracy can only save itself

That was a Sunday evening, as it could have taken place in the last millennium. The SPD won the citizens’ choice in Hamburg and is again allowed to form a stable coalition with the Greens, while a few right -wing populists are allowed to take a seat on the opposition banks.

The result is to be treated to the Free and Hanseatic City. And it is a clear example of how well under the right circumstances the traditional Federal Republican model can still work.

Unfortunately, the growing metropolis of Hamburg is not representative of current Germany - and certainly not for this increasingly crazy world. The choice was just the exception of a trend that finally questioned everything that seemed certain for decades.

And because this is the case, an angry question is formed in my head, the question addressed to the Berlin political business: Is it still possible?

Yes, being a journalist means in my view not to agitate polemically. Not to take cheap political contempt. And, very difficult: not to know better. And yes, of course I know that a parliamentary system works in electoral cycles and makes a natural drive power of politics.

Nevertheless, I now lack any understanding that the well -known party program continues in Berlin - as if sacks are not the world order in which we have comfortably set up, in front of our eyes. Because despite all the dramatic announcements and intellectually valuable speeches, everything is as usual in the capital.

The SPD leader, who is responsible for a record defeat, secures the most important items in the party on day 1 after the Bundestag election. The designated Chancellor from the Union only collects a fundamental promise for hours after the election and, publicly, senses to implement this word fracture with the old parliament. And there the usual white and West German men sit together to split the dwindling power among themselves, which will only last four years at best.

At the same time, the tiring defamation rituals continue. While the left does not want to differentiate between conservative, right and right-wing extremist, the Union condenses the old AfD propaganda from a state-financed left-wing protest sector in an elongated pseudo request. What a stupid and above all counterproductive polarization bingo.

I don't expect much. I don't believe in political miracles. I do not ask for a federal government to create a boom, slow climate change or even end the war against Ukraine. At the same time, I accept that the necessary compromise between the aim of taking up the persecuted of this earth and the real integration and security situation will not be nice.

But as a citizen of this country, I demand that the political class not only recognizes and describes the seriousness of the situation, but that it acts determined according to its knowledge and descriptions. It is no longer enough for the parties to name the problems from an interest -based perspective and cover each other with demands. You also have to solve these problems.

And that works, surprise, only together.

In theory, everyone involved has long since known what is at stake. After a KGB-Zar wants to turn the story back in Moscow, a modern Mad King now rules in Washington, who questions the western alliance and its values. While the world stumbles into a neo-imperial era, Germany is not only in a recession, but in an economic, social and demographic structural crisis that acutely endangers the promise of wealth.

Now the traffic lights - theoretically - was a coalition of progress. In practice, however, she failed, and above all on itself. Therefore, the future government parties should finally become aware of their historical responsibility. This is the last chance for the old order to make yourself fit for the new, dangerous age.

And you have to be grateful for that. If a few thousand people had voted for the BSW in the election, the CDU/CSU and SPD would have had to coalize with the Greens. It would have been a disaster with an announcement.

The sentence "first the country, then the party, then the person" is now the "father of our" politics, which is murmured on every reasonably suitable opportunity. Unfortunately, the order is unfortunately turned over. Yes, it's still about the big picture, absolutely - only often after personal ambitions and party interests.

As a journalist in Thuringia, I was able to observe how fatal this behavioral pattern worked in crisis times, where unclear majority politics led state politics into a destructive self -blockade. While the CDU was not ready to soften its anti-Linkes Dogma, the red-red-green minority government practiced in good anti-fascism.

The AfD has also made this stronger, a party that is not an alternative, but a collection of extremists, populists and careerists. In addition to your own advancement, your plan is an authoritarian, nationalist and, as Viktor Orbán openly says: Illiberal system.

That is why they are now, since Donald Trump actually begins to grind democratic institutions, suddenly the greatest transatlantic. What is happening in the longest -existing democracy in the world is what is imminent to everyone when we do not hold up.

Now I was never one of the people who stick to the street or swing flags on demonstrations. I have always been too reasonable, too opportunistic or too contaminated with GDR. Or everything at once.

And I have always been contrary to the AfD, BSW and partly from the left "the one up there" demagogy. But if the current elite wants to encounter the growing anti-elitist affects, it has to reflect and pull it together.

It was almost 100 years ago that the Weimar Republic showed how a democracy paralyzes itself in order to be used by extreme forces. In the meantime, it is not only possible to observe in East Germany that the mechanisms of that time are still effective today.

Of course, as I said, I also have to address this appeal to myself, to the media, to all of us. This democracy can only save itself. And without a critical, controversial but just fair coexistence, it won't work.

But nevertheless, no, I have to request that the next coalition no longer operate narrow -minded party politics, but rather, quickly, pragmatically and, above all, face the greatest challenge before a federal government faces. In this sense, you may still be able to learn from beautiful Hamburg.

You can find all Martin Debes columns published so far .