Volker Wissing is in a hurry.

Not really, that's not his nature at all.

Outwardly, he always appears calm, almost serene.

Pragmatic.

Sober.

The new Federal Minister for Digital Affairs and Transport is in a hurry in a figurative sense because he knows that he has taken over an area of ​​responsibility that needs a general overhaul.

And time is of the essence.

Corinna Budras

Business correspondent in Berlin.

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Digital politics is not his biggest problem child, even if it has given rise to scorn and ridicule in the past. But the old-fashioned fax, impractical as it may be, at least doesn't have a dramatically bad carbon footprint. The car does. Much more important is therefore the reform of transport policy, which so many are pushing for: the green coalition partner, the environmental associations, not least Fridays for Future, even the courts. They are all loudly calling for a “traffic turnaround”, like a U-turn on the open road. That means: away from the car and towards local public transport. Or by bike, preferably on foot. It has not yet been decided whether there can actually be such a U-turn with an FDP minister like Wissing. Critics say: Hardly.

But to break the baton over him now would be premature: The 51-year-old lawyer has been in office for just one month, and the Christmas holidays are in the middle of it. Reason for him to stand in front of a Christmas tree and praise the variety of forms of mobility, from electric cars to pedelecs. Quiet and sedate, friendly. He takes this as an opportunity to make it clear: “We want to take everyone with us. We mustn't overwhelm anyone. "

He has said that a number of times in the past few weeks.

As a native of Rhineland-Palatinate, he thinks, for example, of the people from Pirmasens, who remain loyal to the traditional shoe production metropolis even in its decline and prefer to work several kilometers instead of leaving their homeland.

That alone could be seen as overwhelming, but Wissing means the often raised demand that people should rather take the train than get in the car every day.

But how should that work with the incomplete connection?

96 percent of traffic emissions come from road traffic

At the same time, it is clear to Wissing that little can remain as it is in his department. The climate footprint of the transport sector is devastating. The emission of the greenhouse gas CO2 has not decreased in recent years, but increased, apart from the exception of the Corona year 2020. Car traffic accounts for 60 percent of emissions. If you add trucks, the road is responsible for 96 percent of emissions from traffic. The number of cars on German roads is not decreasing either, it is increasing, now there are 48 million.

At the same time, the vaunted alternative railway has a lousy record: deficits in the billions, poor punctuality values, a confusing corporate structure, dissatisfied customers in both private and freight transport.

The state-owned company is not to blame for this alone, the flood of the century has taken its toll.

But that doesn't help in attracting new customers either.