Chancellor Merkel in Schwedt: You do not care

The construction of the ceiling lamps made of sheet steel in the upper foyer is from 1978, the gigantic mural one year older, then the Uckermärk stages Schwedt were built. And now Chancellor Angela Merkel suddenly walks in, "Good day" to the left, "Good day" to the right, friendly nod. Tense faces among the approximately 60 citizens from Schwedt in Brandenburg and the surrounding area, who are allowed to take part in the round of talks with the Chancellor this Tuesday afternoon. The local organizers have chosen you.

"Then let's see what the day brings," says Merkel.

The Uckermärkerin Merkel is thus a guest in the home. Whereby she is born in Hamburg, but grew up about 60 kilometers as the crow flies west of Schwedt away in Templin, her weekend cottage is in the nearby village of Hohenwalde. "It is already a high degree of familiarity because I know the landscape and the people," says the CDU politician on the initial question of whether she feels at home here in Oderbruch near the Polish border.

Clemens Bilan / EPA

Chancellor at the civil dialogue: "Merkel must go away" -Rephers did not come

On the other hand, this so-called civil dialogue is now routine for Merkel, she is doing this more and more often somewhere in the Republic, most recently in Bremerhaven, soon in Wuppertal. The conversation in the manageable circle is her - and the Merkel-Raus-Rufer, which attracts them in East Germany, must stay at the door. The Chancellor may have to answer particularly unpleasant questions like last November in Chemnitz in these rounds as well, but Merkel can then do so calmly. In Schwedt comes the obligatory question of their refugee policy at the very end. The Chancellor explains again the circumstances in the late summer of 2015, describes what has been politically changed in Germany since then. "We'll continue to work on that," she says.

Continue to work. Keep going.

In the Uckermärkischen stages is a Chancellor to experience that does not care. No, not in the sense that she does not care what happens in this country and especially around it - on the contrary. But what is written and speculated about her, even of party friends, that Merkel itches less and less. Which certainly helps her a bit: Since she gave the CDU presidency last December, her popularity has climbed back to old heights. Maybe it is also because in Schwedt no "Merkel must go away" -Rufer have appeared.

Merkel's Prussian understanding of office

The latest Speculatius is: On the party leader Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer called on Monday for the beginning of June CDU board meeting Merkel could declare the retreat as chancellor. A week after the European election to the Bremen citizenship and local elections in several states would probably be an appropriate time, so the assumption - so that the CDU then full of momentum with the new head of government Kramp-Karrenbauer in the following state elections in Saxony, Brandenburg and Thuringia could go.

There is only one catch: Angela Merkel.

If not mistaken, the Chancellor has a clear plan: she wants to fulfill her governmental mandate as long as possible - at best until the end of the legislature in autumn 2021. Should her coalition not last so long, for example because the SPD leaves the government prematurely, This probably meant for them the end of their chancellorship, from the idea of ​​a minority government Merkel has never held something for another majority would trouble them just as little as a renewed Chancellor candidate. But that out of consideration for her wish-successor, the Chancellor throws Kramp-Karrenbauer or would submit to the pressure of her own party (if that is ever there)? Hard to imagine: Because it would run counter to their Prussian understanding of office.

That after the election Sunday in late May personnel changes on CDU side in the Cabinet be made, which could be again. In the same way that the scheduled board meeting will only discuss the results of the tax assessment and the resulting political priorities.

Nursing care, energy transition, poverty in old age - Merkel answers patiently

There is still much to do for Merkel. "Politics are never finished, you have to react again and again," she says in Schwedt. "That's the other way around in life: That you're never done." Nursing care, the sluggish broadband expansion, the energy transition, medical care in the country, poverty in old age: Merkel answers the questions patiently and in their sometimes awkward way - that you and her governments have not succeeded and succeeds, they concede again. "Things are left lying there," says the Chancellor. And she makes clear announcements. "I'm not talking about a CO2 tax at all", says the CDU politician to the debate on the corresponding climatological proposal, which some people in their party would not like to hear. With the basic pension Merkel brakes the expectations, only in one year one will be able to count on a solution.

Before she left for the Uckermark on Tuesday, Merkel was approached at a press conference at the Chancellor's office to discuss recent speculation. She could answer the question of surprising plans "with a clear no," said the Chancellor. Previously, Kramp-Karrenbauer had stated that the convening of the CDU board meeting had of course been coordinated with Merkel.

Did anyone really believe that the opposite could have happened?

On the other hand: Merkel and Kramp-Karrenbauer - this is an experiment with an open end. The two understand each other very well, but the struggle for power has already divided many a duo. And it is well known that the longtime Prime Minister of Saarland can make political decisions as cold and sober as the incumbent Chancellor. Merkel, on the other hand, surprised everyone by announcing her withdrawal from the CDU leadership the day after the Hessian state elections last October - including Kramp-Karrenbauer. As cool as the chancellor has become over the years, she also has some surprises in her repertoire.

But as I said, you do not go out of the problems to be solved. Especially when Merkel looks beyond Germany's borders. On Wednesday morning, the Chancellor flies to Western Africa for three days, starting in Burkina Faso, followed by Mali and Niger, three of the poorest countries in the world.

Merkel still has a lot to do. She just keeps going.

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