The archive picture shows Friedrich Merz, CDU. | Photo via dts news agency
Cologne | The NRW CDU met on Saturday for its party conference, which was primarily about the content and a proposal on artificial intelligence (AI). Two powerful CDU men spoke: Hendrik Wüst, Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia and Friedrich Merz, CDU/CSU candidate for chancellor. And then Merz said: “Robert Habeck is a children’s book author – and I’m a lawyer.”
What does Friedrich Merz want to say with this?
The sentence: “Robert Habeck is a children’s book author – and I am a lawyer” is abbreviated because Merz adds that he is concerned with technical competence. This is the overall quote: “Habeck is a children’s book author, ok, I’m a lawyer, hopefully ok too, but we have one thing in common, we both have no idea about technology.” Why does the Union’s candidate for chancellor come up with such a crazy comparison? The facts.
Merz studied law and passed the second state examination in law. He was once a judge and, in addition to his political work, still works as a lawyer and served on various supervisory boards. So much for the facts about Merz. Friedrich Merz did not receive a doctorate. The reviled children’s author Dr. phil. By the way, Robert Habeck already did so at the University of Hamburg with his academic work on different forms of representation in literature and digital media. Habeck therefore has a doctorate in German. After his studies, Habeck was a freelance writer. Habeck was state minister for energy transition and is currently federal economics minister and vice chancellor. Why then does Merz call Habeck a “children’s book author” and trigger malice?
Why does lawyer Merz defame the freelance professions?
Why does Merz also denigrate the profession of children’s book author and people who are able to work creatively? A freelance profession, just as lawyers are also considered freelance professions if they are not employed. Why does the CDU/CSU candidate for chancellor denigrate self-employment? For those who are unfamiliar, here is the definition of freelance professions from Wikipedia: “People who practice freelance professions are called freelancers. The liberal professions generally involve the personal, independent and professionally independent provision of services of a higher nature in the interests of clients and the general public on the basis of special professional qualifications or creative talent.” This includes the profession of lawyer and writer.
Children’s book authors of world renown
Astrid Lindgren, Michael Ende, Brothers Grimm, Janosch, Antoine de Saint Exupery, Kirsten Boie, James Krüss, Charles Dickens, JRR Tolkien, Eric Carle, Roald Dahl and so many other people and great minds have written and invented wonderful stories for children Above all, it teaches them one thing: respect for people, living beings and life, and for children to be open to the world or worlds.
The journalist Georg Restle from “Monitor” classifies it as “X”: “You have to #Habeck dislike. The statement of #Merz is still perfidious. He adopts AfD framing, inserts it into a harmless context (“both have no idea”), and then puts himself in a better light. What should stick? The “children’s book author”. An AfD slogan.”
