Ministry of Economic Affairs: Doesn’t anyone really want this house?

Robert Habeck denies his probably last major public appearance than Federal Minister of Economics in the old tradition: he pulls out a board with a diagram under the table. The potential growth of the German economy can be seen on this – and a blue curve that has been steadily pointing down since 2013.

“You have to turn this curve over,” says Habeck on Thursday morning in Berlin. You can also see from the diagram, “how difficult it is, because nobody has succeeded so far”. Not him either.

It is an admission, but also the less subtle message of the outgoing Minister of Economic Affairs: my successor is guaranteed that there will be no boredom.

But of all people, the house, which should now have a special relevance, experiences a loss of meaning in political Berlin. The Ministry of Economic Affairs is suddenly perceived as a niche department, as a remaining item without design power.

Carsten Linnemann, who has long been traded for the office, took the game out of the game as a precaution that he prefers to remain CDU general secretary. Linnemann is said to have been tired about the new and trimmed area of ​​competence of the department. Nobody else is pushing themselves up for the position. Now it should apparently judge a top manager who withdrawn from top politics ten years ago: Katherina Reiche.

The Ministry of Economic Affairs – a house that nobody wants. This impression arises.

Sigmar Gabriel, once Minister of Economics under Angela Merkel, formulates it when asked star With a quote from the former FDP department head Günter Rexrodt: “If a minister is convinced that the economy is made in business, then nobody has to be surprised that the ministry is on the edge of the field of government policy.”

One can make a lot out of the house, says a former cabinet member of a grand coalition starbut also: “Without a brave minister who motivates the economic actors, the trend reversal will not succeed.”

Katherina Reiche is currently being traded as a top favorite for the Ministry of Economic Affairs. It is the managing director of Western energy. From the point of view of many in the CDU leadership, Germany will decisively depend on a more pragmatic energy policy in the coming years-and the rich is very familiar with it.

But does the 51-year-old want the job? And would your calling actually be a strong signal to an unsettled economy?

The Reich, born in Luckenwalde in Brandenburg, fulfills several proportional criteria for Merz ‘cabinet: she is East German and woman. In addition, it is considered to be assertive and ambitious, but not everywhere. However, she fits in Merz ‘profile, says Christian Democrats: After leaving the Bundestag, where she was sitting from 1998 to 2015, she also showed her skills in business.

However, rich is not a heavyweight that would immediately give the Ministry more authority. In the Bundestag election campaign, the department was charged with high expectations. Fast Chancellor Friedrich Merz warned an “economic turn” while he practically denied any competence to the previous home side Robert Habeck.

“Ludwig Erhard would have turned into the grave if he had noticed that,” Merz mocked the HABECK that was responsible for the months of heat pump debate. Former CDU Economic Minister Erhard is considered one of the architects of the German economic miracle. This creates fall height.

Now the economic policy in the black and red coalition agreement is at the top. The location: serious. After two years of recession, zero growth is now even expected for the current year because US President Donald Trump has quickly choked up the initially forecast mini upturn from a miserable 0.3 percent with his customs policy. German key industries such as the auto industry are under massive pressure, the export world champion only added to coronapandemic, then the Ukraine decline.

Ex-department head Gabriel believes Germany under “completely changed global competitive conditions” and before the question of how it could remain efficient and competitive as an industrial nation. A big challenge – but also an opportunity. The former SPD chairman is convinced: “If you face this task, you will bring the Ministry of Economic Affairs from the edge to the middle of the political field and have a highly committed team.”

However, it also depends on the competencies of the future Ministry of Economic Affairs, which has already experienced many metamorphoses. The first official acts of a Chancellor Merz will be to regulate the cuts of the departments by so -called organizational decree. Whole departments between the (sometimes also new) ministries are pushed back and forth to which the Union and the SPD have agreed. The Ministry of Economic Affairs will also change – once again.

The “Federal Ministry of Economy” was sorted several times, sometimes expanded by technology (1998–2002), deprived it again and supplemented by work (2002–2005) and converted from the traffic light government to the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Protection (since 2021). The black and red coalition now remains true to itself when a department for “economy and energy” is to be created again, as Gabriel and his successor Peter Altmaier from the CDU have led in grand coalitions.

This inevitably ensures frictional losses, in case of doubt also a loss of power. This time too? “The formal responsibility is not crucial,” says former FDP Economic Minister Reiner Brüderle the star“But that as a person you are a conscience of orders and bring new ideas, concepts.” To do this, you have to “burn”, says Brüderle, and not formally responsible.

In other words, the minister makes the ministry, provides the house and influence the house. Gabriel was Minister of Economics, Vice Chancellor and SPD party leader, Habeck Vice Chancellor-this is upgrading the cabinet post, who may be more than others on supporting the department colleagues (such as finance).

There were clever and less clever cuts of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, says Sigmar Gabriel. But: “Connecting the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs with the Ministry of Economic Affairs led to the marginalization of the Ministry of Economic Affairs.”

What sounds like a super ministry-and is also said to have blown up CDU general secretary Linnemann-gathers too many areas of responsibility under one roof if in doubt. Makes a department sluggish, less powerful. Gabriel puts it this way: The respective minister spend more time with the integration of two large ministries, so that he can no longer be drafted and enforced.

Minister of Economics Robert Habeck had combined many skills in his house, was also vice-chancellor in the traffic light cabinet, but was accordingly busy by enormous many responsibilities, coordination tasks and appointments. Would the anger about the so-called heating law or suspected compliance be able to be prevented from (ex) state secretary Patrick Graichen through less responsibilities and more time for other things? Who knows.

In any case, the return to the Ministry of “Economy and Energy” could get weight again, believes Gabriel. In retrospect, he says that the combination was useful. Security, stability and price level have an immediate influence on economic development. Especially since renewable energies also belong to the area of ​​influence of the Ministry of Economic Affairs. This merger gave the government additional importance in the government, says Gabriel.

A signal of departure to the economy is now needed, a former Groko cabinet member demands that “more than friendly words and shoulder knocks” awaits from the new head of department. “In principle, an economic minister is blamed for the fact that the burdens for companies decrease or do not increase further – this is a challenge, but also an opportunity.”

Friedrich Merz, who wants to be elected Chancellor on May 6, should know about the many challenges – but also about the opportunities of the post. When he was defeated by Armin Laschet in the race around CDU chair in 2021, Merz made a daring offer to his opponent (and Chancellor Merkel): “I offered the new party leader to enter the current federal government and to take over the Federal Ministry of Economics.”

Nobody seems to be so much enthusiasm for the business department in the Union, and even as well-owner Habeck is asked when he appeared in Berlin: Why does nobody want to have this house?

“At the most general level, it seems to me that,” Habeck starts, “that the many speeches in recent years suddenly meet reality, and the Union, how should I say that it has talked a lot.”