At first glance, it seemed like an affront to the SPD and the Greens.

At least that's how some observers saw it.

Ironically, Finance Minister Christian Lindner made the Freiburg economist Lars Feld his “Personal Representative for Macroeconomic Development”.

Ralph Bollman

Correspondent for economic policy and deputy head of business and “Money & More” for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sunday newspaper in Berlin.

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Maya Brankovic

Editor in the economy of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sunday newspaper, responsible for "Der Volkswirt".

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It's a job that hasn't even existed before, for a man whose tenure in the government's own group of "five business wise men" the SPD absolutely didn't want to extend before the general election, because Feld stands for economical budgeting.

This man is now at the side of the guardian of state money, when the SPD and the Greens would like to spend a lot on all sorts of social and environmental projects.

To make matters worse, the Green Foreign Minister had just brought the former Greenpeace boss Jennifer Morgan into the house.

Are the traffic light parties already preparing for ideological trench warfare?

Less than three months since they signed their coalition agreement in supposedly most beautiful harmony?

Anyone who now looks at the SPD and the Greens is looking in the wrong direction.

In talks with leading social democrats these days there is not a trace of excitement.

Everyone can set their own scent marks, that was priced in when the government was formed: the SPD can raise the minimum wage, the FDP can comply with the debt brake again from next year, the Greens can – within certain limits – do climate protection.

And the dispute over the economic experts in the Council of Economic Experts was a fairly inexpensive means for the then Finance Minister and current Chancellor Olaf Scholz to send a signal to the left wing of the party and to increase unity in the election campaign.

One should not infer personal feelings of hatred from this.

Confrontation with the CDU, not the coalition partners

Instead, the opposition should worry about Lindner's plans.

The experience of other countries has shown how governing liberals can outperform an opposition Christian Democracy on the centre-right spectrum – above all in the Netherlands with its prime minister Mark Rutte, who belongs to the same party family as the German finance minister.

Even a CDU leader like Friedrich Merz with a supposedly clear economic edge can hardly outbid a department head who is being advised by a dedicated, economically liberal economist – at least not if the Union wants to remain electable for its pensioner clientele, for example.

The new consultant does not want to deny that.

On the contrary.

"It was assumed that Christian Lindner wanted to send a signal to his coalition partners with my appointment," says Lars Feld.

"Rather, one should not underestimate the signal to the opposition: the FDP-led Ministry of Finance is firmly committed to the goal of a solid financial policy."

What that can look like could be seen on television these days when Lindner and Merz met on a talk show.

In its new role, the Union could demand a lot, Lindner said condescendingly.

"I've been an opposition politician long enough, so I know how business works." In other words, if a CDU politician now wants things that his party has never implemented during its 16-year reign, that's not very credible - at that , when their own Prime Ministers in the Bundesrat or the Christian Democratic EU Commission President in Brussels act completely differently.

In the attempt to adjust the tax rate to the increased inflation, he "very much hopes for the support of the opposition, which is co-governing in the countries," he pushed immediately afterwards as a poisoned offer of cooperation.