So far, European policy has in fact played no role in the federal election campaign. Not a word was said in the two triales. Issues such as the stabilization of the development fund and the associated joint borrowing are only disputed in secondary positions. The EU plays a central role for the German future. How things go with the debt union and the Stability Pact is of fundamental importance for every taxpayer. Climate protection, (system) competition with China, the secure supply of industry with raw materials and semiconductors, all of these things are ultimately decided not primarily in Berlin, but in Brussels.
Meanwhile, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen does not give the impression that she wants to wait for federal politics to end its navel gazing after the election campaign and the finding of a government and turn back to European issues. Your second “State of the EU Address” after taking office in 2019 was strongly influenced by celebrating the “great successes” of the EU in overcoming the various facets of the Corona crisis. She did not announce new major projects such as cutting CO2 emissions by 55 percent by 2030, as in the previous year. With the climate package to implement the July target, the EU has enough to digest for now. Regardless of this, however, von der Leyen is driving the EU's departure from liberal economic policy - which is to be feared after Brexit.
Her ideas, such as the “European Semiconductor Act” at the center of this year's speech on the state of the EU, originate more from the building blocks of French industrial policy. The outlined China policy will also meet with great approval in Paris. Von der Leyen does not seem to act out of conviction. In most cases, what the French President Emmanuel Macron thinks, to whom she owes her office, is obviously more decisive for her EU policy. That alone should be reason enough that the alarm bells are ringing for some in Berlin - and that the candidates for chancellor are finally talking about the “situation in the EU”.