Bundestag President Wolfgang Schäuble: "It makes me anxious"

© Mario Heller Bundestag President Wolfgang Schäuble: "It makes me anxious". Bundestag President Wolfgang Schäuble on those willing to be vaccinated, the state of the Union and the dangers of too large a parliament. By Stephan-Andreas CasdorffChristian Tretbar 09/18/2021, 10:01 p.m. Mr. Schäuble, you've been in the Bundestag for almost half a century now and you're running again. Are you actually enjoying this election campaign? Fun? Well, yes. We're having unusually difficult, turbulent times with big issues. But if you're not having fun, you shouldn't do it. The only thing missing are the big global issues of the EU or China. The Union is also leaving these topics out. A mistake? So in our election program, foreign and security policy and Europe make the start ... ... You've been in the business for a long time and know that not everyone reads the election program. That's true. But how does our public work? It works through the media. And if ARD and ZDF don't ask a foreign policy question in the Triell, then that's not the fault of the election campaigners. So, journalists are to blame? No, the question is below your level. It's the form of the public sphere, the way communicative processes work today. They help to ensure that priorities are sometimes set incorrectly. And of course, journalists also have to constantly ask themselves which topics from bubbles in the social media they give undue weight to only through the way they report. Serious debate as a task of traditional journalism is becoming increasingly important in these times, after all. And then, of course, there are consultants in politics who tell the election campaigners which topics work and which don't so. What are the big issues of our time? Last week, we had a session of the Bundestag that dealt with three big issues: the flood, Afghanistan and the pandemic. All three could also be grouped under the term globalization. These issues have to do with tectonic shifts, with global political problems. Political leadership must recognize, explain and deal with these connections and problems. Are the problems perhaps simply too big and too far removed from people's everyday lives? The flood has shown how dangerously close a global issue comes to us. We also see this with terrorist attacks. Our task in politics is to uphold our values in all crises, including global ones: Freedom, human dignity, social justice and ecological sustainability. We have to defend them. Against whom? Against dictators, against the enemies of democracy. They avoid these values like the devil avoids holy water. Why is China taking such action against the protest movement in Hong Kong? Why does Putin support the dictator Lukashenko? Because it is difficult to reject the idea of freedom once it has prevailed. The fight against global crises also costs money, a lot of money. In view of the major challenges, isn't it right to put aside the black zero for a while? In a crisis as big as the one we experienced during the pandemic, when in a sense the entire country, the entire world came to a standstill, you have to support the economy. Because we managed well beforehand, we came out of the crisis better than some others. By the way, the Basic Law doesn't say black zero. The Basic Law says that in normal times, you can't spend more than you earn. Returning to balanced budgets after crises: That's what the CDU/CSU stands for. Bundestag election 2021 coalition calculator, polls & historical election results Let's stay with the pandemic for a moment. In last year's Tagesspiegel interview, you said that not everything should be subordinated to life, that not every life can be saved at any price. Isn't it right then to simply leave the unvaccinated to their fate? After all, it is not only the personal fate of those who are willing to be vaccinated; their behavior also has serious consequences for others who cannot or cannot yet be vaccinated. Politics must always weigh the pros and cons. That is an incredibly big task. An informed public is important for making the right decisions. That's not so easy these days, because we don't have a common public in that sense. That's why it makes sense to think about models for deliberative citizen participation on certain issues. You mean a citizens' council on vaccination and health? As President of the Bundestag, I can't decide that on my own. In my view, it can make sense to think about a citizens' council model in parliament on this issue. My goal is to strengthen the representative form of democracy.