Do you still remember the moment when you learned swimming? How did the water not to be worn at first? How they then practiced the right arm and leg movements, went into the water several times, first on the edge, then into the depths, and suddenly it worked?
How would you have found it the other way around if someone came into the water and expected you to swim straight away? On the grounds that “the water is already there”?
100 days grace period in the “death zone”
Which brings us to the new government. It is one of the political customs that a new chancellor is given a maternity leave of 100 days before judging his work.
100 days in which he (or she) can be found in the office that Joschka Fischer once referred to as the “death zone”. 100 days in which he can get to know the dynamics of leading a country and align his cabinet afterwards.
Friedrich Merz is currently experiencing a paradox. Not only that these 100 days are apparently not allowed. On the contrary: a devastating judgment was made through his government before taking office. So, at a time when she hadn’t ruled a single day.
According to the trend barometer from RTL/NTV, more than half of the Germans believe that Merz is not suitable for the Chancellery. The majority are also convinced that he will not do better than his hapless predecessor Olaf Scholz. A head of government has never started with poorer values.
Politics is a long -distance run
It is correct that the world situation does not allow a grace period. In view of the further raging war in Ukraine, a completely erratic US president and a decaying Europe, someone who has a clear plan in foreign policy is needed. However, this does not apply equally to domestic politics. Even if the construction sites are also huge here-weakening economy, bureaucracy madness, strengthening the right-these are not any issues that can be solved in 50 days, even in this period. Rather, it is a long -distance run, as one likes to say in politics.
It may be that Friedrich Merz also fueled doubts through his own guilt whether he has grown to the tasks. For example, due to his hastily scheduled asylum vote, which mainly incurred the AfD account. Or his initial ignorance that he has to deal with the Greens differently for his debt brake turn because he rely on their votes for the necessary constitutional change.
But in the past, despite his advanced age, Merz has proven learning ability. For example, in his candidacy for the party chairman, when he adapted his strategy after two failures and got his personal vanity under control.
He also shows an unusual side when listing the CDU team for the cabinet: Merz has occupied his team against every regional proporz and thus risked one or the other national association. It remains to be seen whether the clever one was. But it wasn’t one thing: discouraged.
Merz is good for surprises
He also has, not yet known as a women’s sponsor, in the end with more women in the cabinet than initially assumed.
Even as a chancellor, Merz could therefore be good for one or the other surprise. Of course, he will make one or the other mistake in the first few weeks. Just like every chancellor in front of him.
It would not only be unfair, but also stupid to write it down now. Those who do this make themselves a büttel of the right -wing populists and their long -term singing that this country is in any case ordained the downfall.
Merz and his team deserve 100 days. Then you can still judge whether you have learned swimming.
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.
