2023-07-11 09:35:35
Morning, half past nine in Germany: Robert Habeck (53, Greens) takes off his jacket and rolls up his sleeves.
The Economics Minister is visiting the southwest. Beginning of his summer tour.
A year ago, Habeck was the celebrated minister, the green star in Germany. In the popularity of voters at the top.
Everything is different now: Habeck has had catastrophic months. Last week, the constitutional court put the stop sign in front of its heating law. The Green Minister is almost as unpopular with voters as the leaders of the Left Party and AfD.
So how is he doing now, at the lowest point in his political career so far?
BILD accompanies Habeck to Bürkle + Schöck. The electrical engineering company certifies, among other things, wind turbines.
Outside, the thermometer reads 27 degrees, and it’s hot in the Stuttgart company’s workshop, too. Habeck sweats – and smiles bravely. He tries the old recipe for success: listen a lot, talk little. Ask questions. And also answer questions.
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The craftsmen laugh as the minister bends a flat copper wire in the workshop. “There’s the crowbar with which the heating law should be enforced,” shouts one and smirks.
Crowbar – an emotive word for Habeck. The opposition in particular had repeatedly accused the Greens of wanting to push the heating hammer through the Bundestag “with a crowbar”.
Now Habeck is trying to smile away at the top. Company employees show the minister the digital system used to book fitters.
Guest Robert Habeck has his own profile: “RoHa 1000” is the name of the virtual fitter. “We’re setting up an appointment now, heat pump installation,” says the employee jokingly. “Oh no,” exclaims Habeck. Laughter.
The minister tries to spread optimism. He came to “hear where the problem is,” Habeck said in the morning in the “Rhein-Neckar-Zeitung”. Now he has the opportunity to do so.
120 employees from 17 nations work for the medium-sized company Bürkle + Schöck (11 million euros turnover, five independent companies). How does that work? “We have a requirement: German is spoken here,” explains Managing Director Thomas Bürkle (57). Where does the shoe pinch? There is a lack of women – and skilled workers!
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One would hope for more support for integration from politicians: “We need apartments for the people, daycare places for their children, language courses, a better welcoming culture.”
The bureaucratic hurdles are too high, and even after vocational school there are still communication problems. This is another reason why it is important that everyone learns German. “Otherwise small groups will form very quickly.”
Habeck goes on to the technology giant Bosch (421,000 employees worldwide, including 133,950 in Germany). There the minister hands over a check: 161 million euros in federal and state funding for a hydrogen project.
Also present: Habeck’s mentor, Baden-Württemberg’s Prime Minister Winfried Kretschmann (75, Greens). Short hug, pat on the back.
But it can be felt: the past few weeks have not passed the two of them without a trace. Kretschmann had repeatedly expressed clear criticism of the heating law and the style of government of the Greens (“many continue to cultivate their old enemy image”).
And again, Habeck catches up with the past week. The swatter from Karlsruhe for the heating hammer? Yesterday’s news, he signals.
The Green Minister emphasizes that he is going into the summer break “relaxed and confident”. To then praise: “There is no reason to be despondent (…). There is reason to be proud, there is reason to be confident.”
Here in the southwest, Habeck is trying to get back on track. His hope: to gather new sympathies during the summer break, in order to then start again in Berlin.
But the question remains: Do people trust Robert Habeck to make such a comeback? And are you willing to give him a second chance?
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