The Frank-Walter system

In the end, all that remains is waffling. This will be the record of our current first man in the state. This country has not managed to have a woman in 75 years of its constitution. And there shouldn't be any more. Because it is time to abolish this office without replacement. The current incumbent has paved an important way to do this. There is no longer a figure in party politics that we can agree on. And party politics has subjected this country to itself without any internal justification and is claiming stagnation on a wide scale and with many people. FWS is doing nothing to change that. The beaming von Weizsäcker warned these parties that they were too obsessed with power. Roman Herzog warned the Germans that they were too despondent. High up on the yellow wagon, a chart-topper named Scheel rejoiced, Gustav Heinemann brought decency. Heuss was, after all, the father of the new republic. But the careerist Steinmeier got every position he wanted. He has left no trace in any of them that would not be judged to be at least negative, if not, as is usually the case, catastrophic. He is a statesman in the worst possible way, the lawyer from Detmold. Perhaps it is the fact that he shared a birthday with Uli Hoeneß that prevented anything better. He is the typical shadowy figure. They don't tolerate the sun very well. And that is why it is never light when FWS appears. He has been Federal President for over 7 years now and no one remembers any speeches he gave. Because, yes, Federal Presidents give speeches. That is about it as far as the job description goes. But he, who has been toiling away in every conceivable top position for 30 years, has not managed to be something that the Germans would like to have. A shining light, a leading figure, someone they can trust. In Lower Saxony under Gerhard Schröder, he was not able to do much harm as head of the office. In his first job as head of the Chancellery under the same warrior, he violated the labor market reforms that were good for the German economy, but terrible for those affected, the people. A little breach of international law through the bombing of Serbia was already forgotten. When Schröder preferred to slave away for Putin, Frank-Walter, what a shitty name, was the representative of the corrupt ex-boss and remained loyal to the Russians to the very last member. He was in a tizzy, FWS saw himself as the world leader and ran against Angela Merkel. The result, as always: defeat.
He became parliamentary group leader in the SPD when he was responsible for the party's worst result as the top candidate. He obtained his Bundestag mandate by stealing constituencies in Brandenburg. And sat on the penitential bench called the opposition, which his colleague Müntefering described as rubbish, and Steinmeier himself probably meant. Angela Merkel found his conformity in this office so amusing that she welcomed her former opponent into the government, smiling and condescendingly. As foreign minister. He was in his element there. Because this species also babbles a lot. And that all over the world. There was no country, no continent in which he did not negotiate. He, a lawyer through and through, never cared what he was negotiating about. The result: a nuclear agreement with Iran that no longer exists, Brexit took place during his term in office, and Putin's withdrawal from civilization certainly did. When he occupied Crimea, FW started negotiating. Nobody knew what about. Minsk was the catastrophe, and after that there was a Normandy format. The Westphalian with one kidney in it was fiddling around everywhere, and his opponents laughed themselves half to death. When nothing else worked and he was praised to the top in 2017, he had landed in his paradise. He remained there alone from then on. The SPD was certainly not entitled to this office, but Merkel, his confidante, managed it for him, just as she let Köhler, one of the best in his profession, and Wulff, the pale Lower Saxon, fall over their swords for nothing. If the 2022 elections had taken place just three months later in his second term, FWS would not have been able to run again. Too entangled in the wrong Russia policy, this would have been a public issue. So he was re-elected exactly one week before the outbreak of war in Ukraine. A "lame duck" is a majestic glider compared to this man. With a little decency he would have had to resign from office a long time ago. He has his party, along with many others, on his conscience, as he forced his socialists and the embarrassing Schulz into a grand coalition when it was clear that this would harm Germany. Power comes before country. These grandees know that. We have figures like Frank-Walter Steinmeier to thank for our great dissatisfaction, which we all hear, feel and rightly complain about everywhere. They cling to the old ways, have no plan, especially not one with the letter B, not for the country and certainly not for themselves; they radiate
n nothing but the iron will to stay. Politics is addictive. Even those affected admit that. But addicts should be cured, not governed.
In a European Union of regions, not nations, presidents will be superfluous. This country needs reform at its core and limbs. A reduction in the size of the political system, not its expansion. A culture of progressive elitism, in which the best are asked, not party soldiers who have held out the longest. We need fewer state parliaments, fewer federal states, more courage to try new things. Above all, a quota for independents. The SPD, with its current 14% in the polls, occupies all three constitutional ranks. Federal President. President of the Bundestag. Federal Chancellor. And when I say that Bärbel Bas is quite OK compared to the other two, you will surely ask: who? They are meddling and fumbling and arming themselves while they still can. There is no improvement in sight as far as the parties' policies are concerned. Not from the idiots of the AfD, not from marketing idiot Sarah Wagenknecht. Black-green under a Mr. Wüst is the best that can be expected. Lord in heaven.
But what's coming? Uschi von der Leyen, a shotgun-wielding politician, will join the Commission, continue to dabble and will succeed the then 71-year-old FWS as Federal President. She will then be the first woman. And at 69, she'll almost be a junior member of the staff. OK, that was really scary. But I have one more: the Chancellor will probably not be called Wüst, but Merz. And he'll be 72.
In Cologne, people would sing: "After Mattes, just the Käz us." But we're not all from Cologne.

05/27/24
*Kai Blasberg worked in the private media in Germany for 40 years