I was recently in Duisburg for an appearance. The local business association had invited me to say a few words about the current political situation on the occasion of their Entrepreneurs’ Day. My specialty: finding something cheerful in the horror.
I don’t know if you’ve ever been to Duisburg. I rented a car and thought as I drove down the main street: “Wow, how worn out this place looks.” I’m sorry for all Duisburgers to have to say this: but if there was an award for instantly overwhelming ugliness, Duisburg would be a strong contender for one of the top spots.
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Things aren’t looking much better around here. Later that evening, the mayor of Mülheim joined me and introduced himself as the mayor of Germany’s most indebted municipality. As a farewell, he gave me a 0-euro note that had been printed in the town hall – as a greeting of need.
Why Thuringia is the most beautiful federal state for me
You would expect that the people in Duisburg and the surrounding area would all look like they’ve had seven days of rainy weather. But no, they seem surprisingly stable. If I had to describe the mood, I would say: cheerful stoicism. Everyone agrees that the situation is crap. But what can you do? Complaining doesn’t change anything. So people meet up in a sociable group and make the best of the situation.
If I were asked what the most beautiful state is, I would say Thuringia. I know I have to be careful not to make the Bavarians angry with me. Everyone who lives in Bavaria naturally assumes that God himself has personally overseen the creation of the beautiful state of Bavaria. So I will perhaps put it more cautiously: traveling through Thuringia is like traveling through a fairytale land. Gently rolling hills and valleys, dotted with forests that look as if the Brothers Grimm had already walked through them, and towns whose closed ensembles are almost unmatched.
The frustration about the current situation
But it’s strange how people seem depressed, as if a terrible nightmare were weighing on them. When you talk to them, you see serious, almost desperate faces. The traffic light coalition is destroying the country. You can’t rely on anything anymore, not even the railways. And then there are the many migrants. In short: Germany is a vale of tears from which only the AfD can rescue you. Or Sahra Wagenknecht, the Rosa Luxemburg of the last few days.
That is the explanation given for why half of the East votes for parties that reject the West and its representatives: frustration with the current situation.
I admit that I can’t take people seriously who vote for parties whose leaders look as if they’ve had something done to their faces. I can’t prove it, but if Björn Höcke hasn’t had botox, I’ll eat a broom. Is it bad if someone gets their face plumped up with fillers? No, it’s not. But I would advise caution with a politician. People who overdo it when it comes to themselves are usually not so careful with their election promises either.
Even Sahra Wagenknecht can smile
Where does the bad mood come from? I would really like to understand. But bad mood is an understatement. It is more of a mixture of depression and anger, where anger can replace depression at any time.
If someone told me I had to spend an evening with Alice Weidel or Sahra Wagenknecht, I wouldn’t know how I would decide. Maybe in the end I would choose Alice Weidel. At least you can have the vague hope that the fifth Riesling will help you relax. That’s out of the question with Wagenknecht.
I once saw her smile. There is a clip on YouTube from an old Harald Schmidt show where she asks what speaks for capitalism and Schmidt answers: “Well, my standard of living.” That is so disarming that even Wagenknecht’s mouth corners lift for a moment. But that appearance was eleven years ago. That wouldn’t happen to her today.
I have never understood why the talk shows treat one politician like an incarnation of Beelzebub and the other like a serious government critic. Even the nice Mr. Klamroth, whose heart beats so green that his hair is a complementary color, is weak when it comes to Wagenknecht. It is really hard to tell the difference. If you were to copy speeches from both politicians on Russia and Putin and then black out the names, no one would be able to tell which one was from which.
Let Höcke do his thing!
Otherwise, the programs are almost identical. The only difference: If Wagenknecht could say what was going on, not only would all refugees be expelled from the country, but the rich as well. Or rather, they would be saddled with such high taxes that they would flee the country. That is not the case with the AfD. Their social policy ideas are within the usual right-wing socialist framework.
And now? I would be in favor of letting Höcke do his thing. The first AfD prime minister, supported by the BSW: that is also democracy. Instead of trying to gloss over the Wagenknecht party in order to keep the AfD out of power, simply accept the will of the voters – that is not the worst of the possible alternatives.
In addition, one would like to see what the major diplomatic initiative that will pacify Ukraine, starting in Erfurt, looks like. The stationing of new US missiles in the Hunsrück would also be a done deal, given the current situation. There may only be two million people living in Thuringia, but when it comes to peace, every vote counts twice. Oh, what am I saying, twice? Five times!
As Prime Minister, Höcke would have to be consistent
However, I think that no decision is without consequences. Anyone like the Thuringian AfD chairman who declares war on the democratic cartel system and speaks of the beauty of resistance should then also free themselves from the corruption caused by the money of the cartel powers.
I looked at the transfer payments from the state financial equalization scheme. The states that benefit most from transfers from the West are Berlin, Saxony and Thuringia. Last year, Thuringia received 1.9 billion euros, just under 1,000 euros per capita.
“The final division of Germany, that is our task,” is an old “Titanic” motto. I wouldn’t go that far. But why not stop the financial equalization between the states? Some will now cry out and say that it is undemocratic to demand something like that. All I can say to them is: if you puff out your cheeks, you should also be able to whistle.
Botox in Höcke’s face?
That’s what always bothered me about the Hungarians: they give Europe the finger at every opportunity, but then happily accept billions from the cohesion fund. I think there’s something undignified about that. It’s like the middle-class children who play revolution with their daddy’s money. If you’re going to be hostile to the system and bash the Federal Republic of Germany, then do it properly.
Perhaps there is a connection between bad moods and transfers. The feeling of being dependent on others usually leads not to gratitude but to resentment.
As for the Botox in Björn Höcke’s face: I am always ready to accept a counterstatement. I still remember how Gerhard Schröder demanded that people no longer write that he dyed his hair. There was then a lengthy legal dispute about whether tinting and dyeing were sufficiently related forms of hairdressing.
From then on, the “Spiegel” wrote about the Chancellor with the darkest hairline of his generation. We can happily do the same for Björn Höcke. We simply write: The AfD leader with the smoothest face of all political marriage swindlers.
Read all columns by Jan Fleischhauer here .
Readers either love him or hate him, but few are indifferent to Jan Fleischhauer. You only have to look at the comments on his columns to get an impression of how much what he writes moves people. He worked for SPIEGEL for 30 years, and at the beginning of August 2019 he moved to FOCUS as a columnist.
Fleischhauer himself sees his task as giving voice to a worldview that he believes is underrepresented in the German media. In other words, when in doubt, he is against herd instinct, platitudes and stereotypes. His texts are always entertaining – perhaps it is this fact that provokes his opponents the most.
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