Robert Habeck wants it.

Christian Lindner wants it.

And Friedrich Merz would certainly not mind if he got it: We are talking about the Federal Ministry of Finance.

There are still around two months until the federal election, and even if the usual summer break is over the Berlin government district and most MPs are either campaigning in their home country or on vacation: those who are still there mentally play through who could get which government office after the election.

Dietrich Creutzburg

Business correspondent in Berlin.

  • Follow I follow

Julia Löhr

Business correspondent in Berlin.

  • Follow I follow

Manfred Schäfers

Business correspondent in Berlin.

  • Follow I follow

At the top of the list of desires is the monumental building on Wilhelmstrasse not far from Potsdamer Platz.

Whether it is about the Corona aid programs, the financing of climate protection or currently the aid for the flood victims: There is no getting around Olaf Scholz (SPD), because the other ministries can do little without the finance minister.

This is one of the reasons why top politicians from almost all parties these days, sometimes more, sometimes less aggressively, want to watch over the budget in the place of Scholz.

But the mind games are not just about who could get which office in which government constellation. Another question that is no less exciting is which offices will be distributed at all. Often the ministries' layouts are changed in coalition negotiations. This year the focus should be on the responsibility for energy policy. This has been in this ministry since Sigmar Gabriel (SPD) took office as Minister of Economics in December 2013, which the Greens in particular see as an obstacle on the way to more climate protection - especially if, as recently, the CDU leads the Ministry of Economics.

In December 2018, today's top candidate for the Green Party, Annalena Baerbock, thought out loud about whether the responsibility for energy should not be removed from the Ministry of Economic Affairs and a powerful Ministry of the Environment should be created. "It was fatal for the climate to remove energy from the Ministry of the Environment in 2013," Baerbock told the newspaper taz at the time. In the meantime, the Greens avoid talking publicly about possible departmental cuts. After the many mistakes in the election campaign, the party does not want to give the impression that its participation in government is already certain. But when the cameras and microphones are off, it becomes clear that a powerful climate, energy and environment ministry continues to be one of the party's main goals. And that Annalena Baerbock, if she doesn't become Chancellor, would like to have the same.

Meanwhile, the CDU / CSU and FDP are focusing their attention primarily on the digital sector, which they want to upgrade from today's department in the Chancellery to an independent ministry. Which would undoubtedly be a signal that Germany really wants to catch up in this area. It is still unclear - as it was three and a half years ago, when the discussion was already held - to what extent such a ministry could oblige others to do something. Thomas Jarzombek, start-up commissioner of the government, based in the Federal Ministry of Economics, outlines a possible alternative: "It would be important in any case that business and digital are more closely interlinked," he says. "And that you also include the research area."