OPINION - Power plays in Germany's new government

-The author is director of the Center for Advanced Security, Strategic and Integration Studies at the University of Bonn.

ISTANBUL

German poet Hermann Hesse's statement that there is magic in every beginning may only apply to a very limited extent to the start of the government under Chancellor Friedrich Merz. The makeup of the new Cabinet remained unclear until the last moment. There were cancellations, such as that of the CDU's leading economic policy figure and person responsible for the parliamentary election campaign, Secretary General Carsten Linnemann, to join the government, and this fueled further speculation and culminated in several unexpected appointments.

The new Cabinet and the responsibilities of the ministries bear the hallmarks of the trio of party leaders, Friedrich Merz (CDU), Lars Klingbeil (SPD), and Markus Soder (CSU). They are the result of an exhausting tug-of-war between the mistrustful partners, who have not found each other in a love match. Merz honored his promise to appoint people who achieved success in business. This applies in particular to the new economics minister, Katherina Reiche, a successful energy manager who was already a member of Edmund Stoiber's shadow cabinet in 2002 and who impressed under Angela Merkel as parliamentary state secretary in several departments. The new minister for digitization and state modernization, Karsten Wildberger, has no experience in government or party politics. This newly created ministerial post is unprecedented in German government. Excessive bureaucracy and a lack of genuine reform have largely held Germany back.

The new minister of state for culture, Wolfram Weimar, is also a real surprise, an experienced journalist with no previous political experience or administrative knowledge. He faces the difficult task of depoliticizing a cultural policy previously shaped by ideology under Claudia Roth (Green Party). Remarkably, Merz largely ignored the customary proportional distribution among state party wings when making his appointments. With Johann Wadephul and Karin Prien for the Federal Foreign Office and the Education and Family Affairs Ministry, he has now appointed two politicians from the small state of Schleswig-Holstein. Criticism came above all from the eastern federal states, which feel that they were not given sufficient consideration in the new Cabinet despite the convincing appointment of Reiche from Brandenburg.

Strategic CSU ministry picks

The mark of CSU Chair Soder, who had already proven himself to be a savvy professional and brilliant negotiator during the coalition negotiations, is clearly visible. With Alexander Dobrindt, Dorothee Bar, and Alois Rainer, the CSU has three favorite ministries in which it can take Bavarian interests into account to a high degree. Dobrindt is the new strongman of the Cabinet as Soder's outpost. With responsibility for migration policy, he is in charge of the most important policy area on which the success of the new government depends. Horst Seehofer's "homeland" portfolio – a pet project that never fit well within the Interior Ministry – was dropped. Instead, he now oversees German minorities in the east, a role that has already drawn significant political attention. Heimat (homeland) is moving to the Agriculture Ministry, also run by the CDU, where the topic is in good hands due to its responsibility for rural areas. The Research Ministry has expanded its remit to include the areas of technology and space travel, giving it the opportunity to set completely new priorities in technology policy. This is the most interesting political message of the reallocation of departmental responsibilities.

Klingbeil, the new strongman, SPD leader, and finance minister, can also be satisfied. With his proposals for the heads of the SPD-led ministries, he has shown that nobody in his party can take the reins out of his hands. He ousted his widely unpopular Co-Chair Saskia Esken in a public power struggle. Esken's wish for a place at the Cabinet table – she claimed the Development Aid Ministry – remained unfulfilled. She will soon pay for the humiliation of her defeat by not being reelected as party leader and will remain a member of the Bundestag only as an ordinary MP. Otherwise, Klingbeil endeavored to put as much distance as possible between himself and the failed three-party coalition of the SPD, Greens, and FDP by not reappointing almost all former ministers with SPD party credentials, such as former Interior Minister Nancy Faeser, former Health Minister Karl Lauterbach, and former Development Aid Minister Svenja Schulze. Only Boris Pistorius remains in office as defense minister. The popular politician, who many in his party would have liked to have seen as the SPD's top candidate during the election campaign, has been in a weight class of his own since his tug-of-war with Olaf Scholz and is standing by as the SPD's reserve party chair for future tasks.

Coalition dynamics

This tension between Klingbeil's role as party leader and the demands of government office likely explains why he became vice chancellor instead of remaining parliamentary group leader. With Barbel Bas replacing Hubertus Heil, another SPD heavyweight who is also no longer in the Cabinet, as labor minister, the former Bundestag president has moved further up the internal hierarchy. By once again assuming responsibility for labor and social affairs, Klingbeil also succeeded in thwarting a key concern of the CDU and CSU to bring the economy and labor under one roof and was probably a major factor in Carsten Linnemann's decision not to join the Friedrich Merz-led government.

The new government can credibly claim a fresh start with its appointments and responsibilities. Given these challenging times, the government's untested lineup risks policy paralysis. Despite heavy publicity during the election campaign, the National Security Council is absent from the new Cabinet’s structure. The merging of the Foreign Office and the Development Aid Ministry, which was recommended by many, has not materialized.

* Opinions expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Anadolu's editorial policy.