Germany’s first three-party coalition, made up of the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD), the Greens, and the neoliberal Free Democratic Party (FDP), has collapsed, marking the end of what polls say is the most unpopular government in history. I told him. In a September poll by the polling institute Allensbach Institute for Public Opinion Research, only 3% of respondents said they believed the government was still good for Germany.
But studies such as the Happiness Atlas 2024, the German government’s Equality Report and a new study by the German Institute for Economic Research show that with inflation improving and pandemic restrictions long past, Germans are feeling better about their lives. It was found that respondents’ satisfaction level has increased.
John Kampfner, a former Germany correspondent for Reuters, said the atmosphere in the country was always much worse than the actual situation. He argues that Germans have a fundamental tendency to complain.
“This tendency to complain always gives people an excuse to absolve themselves of responsibility. It’s a form of paralysis,” he says. Kampfner said, “Germans have become too comfortable. They have always been very comfortable. There was stability, everything was solid. But there is a culture of innovation, a culture of risk-taking, a culture of doing new things. There is no culture to start with. When it comes to digitalization, for example, they are stuck in the Middle Ages.”
resistant to change
Bulgarian political scientist Ivan Krastev recently summed up the situation as follows: “The past 30 years have been very good for Germany. People want to continue living the way they are.” But the world has changed fundamentally, especially in the aftermath of the Ukraine war. Now, Germans spoiled by success are being forced to change their lifestyles. This goes against their idea that everything is fine as it is.
So what does it take to reform a country that doesn’t want to change? Above all, Kampfner believes he knows a strong chancellor who acts more like a captain than a referee. A case in point was on Wednesday night, when Finance Minister Olaf Scholz explained in clear terms his decision to fire Finance Minister Christian Lindner. Kampfner said this has been done far too rarely and that he believes 80 or 90 percent of the government’s problems are due to Scholz’s leadership style.
“Olav Scholz was very courageous and took risks in his speech about turning points,” he said, referring to his February 2022 speech shortly after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. “The chancellor decided that Germany needed a lot of fundamental changes. After that speech, his popularity skyrocketed. But after that, too little happened. Two steps forward, then two. We are taking a step back. This government lacks leadership.”
Hedwig Richter, a history professor at the Bundeswehr University in Munich, believes that the government’s poor communication skills are also to blame for the political predicament. She said the government treated the people like children and the government’s only response to the polls was to worry about the people.
“It would have been important to say, ‘Okay, we live in a democracy, we have to talk to people like adults,'” Richter told DW. “We have to say what’s going on. It’s what the Greens have been trying to do for a while. We have to say the renewal is going to be painful. But… It must be said that such changes are absolutely worth it. And if we refuse to accept both ecological transformation and the introduction of new security policies, we will eventually It would be much more expensive and destroy our security.”
But she also said the roots of the government’s failures go back even further, to Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government, which took office in 2005. Under Merkel, the country relied on its own momentum and prosperity. Germany is currently facing multiple crises, the effects of which are severe.
“For a long time, we Germans thought we could outsource security,” she says. “We also thought we could ignore migration without having to find real solutions. And we also thought we could simply postpone all ecological disasters. But now we We live in a time when all the side effects of our actions backfire on us.”
Germans need to hear ‘success stories’
Marcel Fratzscher, director of the German Institute for Economic Research, recently called it “Germany’s Kennedy moment,” referring to the moment in his 1961 U.S. presidential inaugural address when Kennedy said, “Ask not what your country can do.” I called out. Think about what you can do for yourself and your country. ” In other words, Fratcher said a positive narrative is needed to pull Germany out of the doldrums.
Sociologist Harald Welser has been playing with the idea of telling what he calls “success stories” for some time. Welser and his fellow campaigners aim to look to the future. It’s about motivating people and showing them that with constructive ideas, a lot of change is possible, even on a small scale. How does he explain Germany’s persistent obsession with its past?
“Of course we were the victors after the war, especially West Germany,” he said. “It was a story of two generations of economic progress and prosperity, fueled by globalization. And everyone thought it would stay like this forever. Once you get caught up in the model of prosperity, Naturally, you don’t want to give it away.” Raise any. ”
Welzer also blamed the media for the negative mood in Germany. Conservative media, especially German dailies such as Bild, Welt and FAZ, have launched a media campaign targeting the Green Party, which emphasizes the need for Germany to modernize its economy. 21st century.
“And the moment you start saying that in concrete terms, everyone screams that you’re imposing rules and regulations. And of course, it’s the messenger who ends up getting hammered.”
This article was originally written in German.
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