"Would you buy a used car from Gerhard Schroeder?" That was the sarcastic question which accompanied a photograph of Germany’s smiling and elegant new prime minister on a recent cover of the magazine "The Economist" a week before the German elections.
The German electors not only bought the car, but a number of questionable accessories may have come with it judging from the contents of Schroeder’s proposal for his cabinet of ministers. Just to name a few:
Before becoming a leader of the Greens, Joschka Fischer, a bidder for the foreign ministry, had indeed a very picturesque and imaginative career. In 1968, he entered the rank and file of the extreme left, clashing readily and willingly with the police in the many street demonstrations of that era. His pilgrimage to India serves as a locus classicus of his generation. He then abandoned the most extreme of his political positions. Beginning in 1976, he dedicated five years of his career to driving a taxi in Frankfort while writing the occasional erotic short story. His moderation is confirmed by the fact that he leads the "realo" wing of the Greens, i.e., the ecological realists, as opposed to the "fundis," or fundamentalists. Certainly a colorful curriculum vitae, but hardly comforting or qualifying as a foreign minister.
Then there’s Otto Schilly as interior minister. Perhaps no other cabinet candidate better embodies the red and green soul of this coalition. He was one of the founders of the Green movement in 1980. However, once he arrived in parliament, he switched over to the ranks of the SPD, the Social Democratic Party, in 1989. The Christian Democrats, or CDU, can hardly be blamed, however, for their unwillingness to forgive the fact that, before all of that, he had served as a defense lawyer for the terrorist group, RAF, during the mid-seventies.
The new prime minister and former kitchen appliance salesman never sold cars, but the metaphor is not at all misplaced in terms of substance. The man has a talent for selling promises he can’t keep and he’s got a record to prove it.
He has promised his fellow citizens, with particular regard to East Germans, that his government’s number one priority will be to fight unemployment, which now concerns over 11% of the population, a post-war record. However, the unemployment figures in his land of Lower Saxony are much higher than the national average. He announced his intention to give all the support necessary to the development of new industries of the future. But if we look once again at the example of the land which enjoyed his leadership, firms which are specialized in high technology are a true rarity. He has also pledged to put the nation’s public finances in order. Once again, his record in his own region hardly serves as an example of great capability in this area: There is no region in west Germany which has a higher debt than Lower Saxony.
Like the used car salesman who offers his customer a larger discount or a better trade-in according to his understanding of the psychology of his victim, Schroeder used those same chameleonic characteristics to persuade Germans and Europeans allies alike that they had nothing to fear from his leadership. Vague and ambiguous, he preached everything and its opposite, something for everyone.
On the one hand, he criticized the Europeanization of Kohl and brandished the cult of the mark and Euro-phobia. He did his best to arouse the resentment of East Germans pointing out that they have been economically declassed, psychologically belittled, and deprived of the meager but secure social assistance that they were formerly guaranteed by the former GDR.
On the other hand, just before the elections, he claimed that he was in favor of the Euro, even though that is hardly the opinion of the president of his party, Oscar Lafontaine. He professed his support of NATO, despite the fact that his campaign trail buddies, the Greens, are adamantly against it. And, of course, he avowed his commitment to financial rigor à la Tony Blair, his presumed Britannic mentor.
By so doing, he artfully planted the seeds of discontent in Bonn against Europe, winning the hearts and votes of those who are still nostalgic toward the German mark. With equal skill, he managed to instill dissatisfaction in Berlin against reunification, winning over those who miss the bland securities of Communism.
Winning the elections is one thing. Ruling is another. It remains to be seen whether Schroeder will be able to overcome his own contrapositions as well as the contradictions within the alliance over which his vulnerable chancellorship will have to govern.
October 1998
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