It was May 13, 1940, when Winston Churchill had just replaced the hesitant and hesitant Neville Chamberlain, whose conservative government was replaced by an all-party coalition in order to defy the visitation by Hitler, because he kept his blood and sweat – and tearful speech. “I have nothing to offer but blood, hardship, tears and sweat.” It was a speech for parliament, but even more a speech to the people.
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And it was a drastic communicative reversal: One was used to politicians offering a paradise for a lentil dish. The fact that their prime minister only promised them sacrifices in order to be able to win in the end was new, and Churchill’s greatest achievement: With his powerful speech, Churchill created trust, he brought the population and his hard line of war behind him.
Söder determined to do everything: “No more half measures”
On this Sunday, December 13th, 2020, the determined Markus Söder said this: The corona virus is “out of control”, one should now “no longer do things by halves” because the pandemic is “a catastrophe” required a “national effort”, a “completely or not at all”.
There is a danger that Germany will become the “problem child of Europe”, every three minutes someone dies of Corona, which is why they have “consistently decided”, also because there is already a “triage” in some cases, and because “Bergamo” is closer to us than one or the other believe. That is why there should be “no both and” anymore. “Everyone” agrees: No more discussions about “exceptions and details”, no more looking for the “fly in the ointment”. Now is the “time for togetherness”. In the end, “we’ll survive that too”.
Surf tip: Triage – the term explained and what you should know about it
Corona is not Hitler, Söder is not Churchill – and yet: the parallels are obvious. It is particularly the communicative turn that Söder initiated on this Sunday, and which is so similar to Churchill’s rhetoric. Söder reflected on the rules of communication, he not only thought about which contact restrictions could best be used to fight Corona.
Such a consequence, such a unanimity across all party camps, is “easier to communicate,” said Söder at one point. Communication isn’t everything. But everything is nothing without communication. The Bavarian Prime Minister knows this rule of the game. In his capacity as a power man.
Art of communication helps Söder on the defensive
In this respect, too, the Corona press conference on Sunday noon marks a turning point. Söder turned a planned statement into a speech, and a speech that was not planned as a government statement. In which it was more than 90 percent about Germany. And less than ten percent about Bavaria. As a reminder: Markus Söder is Bavarian Prime Minister. And as such, he is currently responsible for the highest number of corona cases.
And not only that: in the past, he has always supported the small and small solutions that he celebrates overcoming today. This is also the chance for a courageous communicative turnaround: It brings you from a threatening defensive to the relieving offensive. The art of communication is sometimes reminiscent of sleight of hand.
This demonstratively determined, that was one thing in Söder’s speech. The other: this unity. It is not now the question of “who is better or worse off” – of course it was. Söder spread praise: “expressly” to the Chancellor – as the first. Söder followed suit with Berlin’s Governing Mayor Müller, a Social Democrat who will soon swap his leadership position for the vastness of the German Bundestag.
And finally the Federal Minister of Finance, also a Social Democrat, with whom Söder would then have to deal with as candidate for Chancellor, and who, when the word was up, spoke so solidly and bureaucratically, as if it were really about write-offs and not Germany’s fate, which would affect Söder had made his subject. Scholz, a good second man, this impression was conveyed on the occasion. Whoever, like Söder, distributes so much praise to the most important people at court, is either the court jester or: himself the king.
Surf tip: You can find all the news about the coronavirus in the news ticker from FOCUS Online
Söders Bergamo threat – what a Christmas message
Söder conjured up the really big pictures. First “Bergamo”. A trauma. From a Deutschlandfunk report from the beginning of October: “At the entrance to Bergamo’s central cemetery, an automat measures the temperature and uses a camera to check whether visitors are wearing a mask as prescribed. (…) So many people fell victim to the pandemic here that the Italian army had to bring the coffins to crematoria all over northern and central Italy with their trucks. There are now separate areas for the corona dead in this cemetery in Bergamo: rows upon rows of fresh graves. “Söders Bergamo threat – what a Christmas message.
Then “triage”. A primal fear of many people. If the intensive care units in Germany are full, doctors have to decide who can still get such a bed – and who no longer. Triage comes from French and means to sort, to choose. Decide about life and death under the laws of scarcity. It is a picture that one knows from the war, when a decision had to be made in the field hospital which wounded person was treated and which one was allowed to die because the doctor could only help one and not two.
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Finally, mandatory vaccination. Söder did not use this word. But he said how worried he was that too few Germans could get vaccinated. It’s surveys on the subject, they fluctuate, but in any case they never reach the 70 percent rate that virologists consider necessary to be able to master the pandemic. Söder said that “everyone must take part in the vaccination”. At some point it will be “a big hit”. “Must” he said. And all”.
Back to Churchill, the inventor of blood, sweat and teardrop so to speak. How often can you actually talk like that without losing credibility? In any case, Churchill made three, depending on the case, four such speeches within a year. “We shall Fight on the beaches”, “This was their finest hour” and “Never was so much owed by so many to so few” (never had before So many owe so much to so few.) In the end Hitler was defeated and Churchill had to go.
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