Frank-Walter Steinmeier doesn’t get out of the juice. He remains a steadily weakening federal president – a recent speech by his predecessor proves this. Our head of state needs an exit strategy.
A comment by Jan Rübel
In his second term, Frank-Walter Steinmeier really wanted to get off the ground. Orient people, write necessary reminders for politicians in notebooks. Make powerful speeches. But of all this you hear: nothing.
It is no problem that the Federal President does not speak loudly, that he speaks palely, that he goes through life more leisurely than impetuous. He was always like that, he was known when he was elected to the highest office in Germany. Okay, even then some people thought it would be better not to become president (me too) – mainly due to a moral morbidity: Steinmeier, as a former chancellery minister, made sure that Murat Kurnaz of Bremen was not taken out from the United States prison camp to Guantanamo a single failure, a disqualification from political responsibility; the Americans had long since discovered that they had innocently indicted Kurnaz on false suspicions of terrorism and wanted to get rid of him, but Steinmeier shook his head. How come? One can only assume that he didn’t want any theoretical stress. He was hard-hearted. Because even the cute “Steini” can be different. For example, when he gets angry with the Ukrainians because his counterpart in Kiev sometimes played against him in a hostile way and did not invite them to visit him. The Federal President didn’t like it at all, because he was suddenly able to speak clearly and put himself in the foreground.
All of which makes his current job at Bellevue Palace all the more tragic.
Everything has a story
Because the Russian war in Ukraine makes it look even weaker than it already was. Steinmeier babbled about a partnership with Russia, about change through trade, until just before the tanks arrived. He defended the pipelines – and now faces the ruins of his own policy, which he believes was unpredictable, but so is just another mistake.
Just think of what his predecessor Joachim Gauck said recently. He gave a speech on the day of mourning, and it was the kind of speech one would expect from Steinmeier. Gauck noted that Putin’s Russia was “an imminent threat to ourselves.” This is not belligerent, but sober – it is precisely the “Russians” who warn us about the dangers of nuclear weapons, obviously with the motive not to irritate the Russian government too much. This view is unrealistic, patronizing and arrogant, just plain wrong. In any case, Gauck drew the conclusion in his speech: citizens and politicians must “constantly” ask themselves the question, he said, “what can we still do to help those who have been attacked?”
self-made chains
Steinmeier, on the other hand, gushes about teatime invitations, talks about the Russian government breaking the rules, and acts as if the period before the Russian invasion was a time of burgeoning peace in Ukraine. It was the same in most of the country, but it ignored the war circumstances in the East, which have always been mainly due to Putin; But then Foreign Minister Steinmeier failed to create the necessary counter pressure and relied on deals, on paper, that Putin only laughed at.
The federal president has been critical of his own policy towards Russia. But not critical enough to be considered a model. To be strong Steinmeier has long been one lame duckhe is paralysed.
It’s hard to imagine how it could still be a signal. Steinmeier is currently only an official administrator. And it alone hurts that in these difficult times a Gauck (not much) turns to him who, in his prosperous self-esteem, was not exactly a good president and in whose contrast even the calm and modest Steinmeier has a beneficial effect.
Steinmeier should see how he gets out of Bellevue Castle saving face.
