Politically instinctless: Robert Habeck did not invent the deep plate

Telepolis Politically instinctless: Robert Habeck did not invent the deep plate Claudia Wangerin • 18 hours • 3 minutes reading time The minister is taking the state to task because of a swear word. Despite his big tasks, he writes books on the side. What gets lost in the process. A comment. No, "idiot" is not the most elegant insult. To put it more kindly, one could say that Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck (Greens) did not invent the deep plate. At the very least, he is behaving politically instinctless in two respects, thereby damaging himself and the causes that his party still stands for in the public perception. The fact that he filed a criminal complaint because of an "idiot" meme with his face posted on platform X and caused the alleged author to have his house searched seems at least unconfident; the police action is completely disproportionate. Habeck faces PR disaster - no matter how his book came about The fact that Habeck is publishing a book in these turbulent times raises the question of what would be the bigger PR disaster for him: if he took the time to write it himself despite all the challenges of his office, or if it turned out that an AI or a ghostwriter did it for him. Either way, it doesn't make a good impression. Even his most stubborn supporters, who gather in online discussions under the hashtag "Team Habeck", have to realize this. Anyone who fundamentally considers him a political talent should be able to expect him to concentrate fully on his office. After all, he gets a tax-financed salary that most people in Germany can only dream of. Why Habeck is the unfunny version of Söder The fact that Habeck wants to make a name for himself as an author on the side seems just as vain and self-aggrandizing as the sprawling social media activities of the CSU leader and Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Söder. The latter are at least entertaining - you can laugh for free at how Söder presents himself as a food blogger and space explainer, while money is being paid for Habeck's book. It is called, without irony, "Up the stream", is to be published before the new elections and is a "course setting" so that those who are interested "find their courage again". Habeck's thin-skinned reaction to the uncreative insult, however, casts doubt on his role model function in terms of courage. In keeping with the motto "What does it matter to the oak tree if the wild boar rubs against it?" he could have overlooked it. What makes the insult arbitrary and harmless Instead, the candidate for chancellor of a party that is polling at around twelve percent is resorting to state power - which would be understandable if it were one of the lynching fantasies with which the neo-Nazi scene repeatedly confronts the Greens and traffic light politicians. Nobody has to let things like that go – and that may partly explain why the Greens are on edge. But this was about a rather weak swear word that could basically come from any political camp to deny the intelligence of their opponent. And who would want their own political friends to be woken up by the police early in the morning because of something like that? How top Greens are fueling climate fatigue After the Greens appeared as a climate protection party in the last federal election campaign, Habeck's behavior is damaging this important cause. No matter how far the top Greens have actually moved away from it. Because despite sharp criticism from the active climate movement of LNG terminals, for which Habeck is largely responsible, and the cancellation of climate sector targets under the traffic light government, the Greens are still closely associated with climate protection – and everything they do and don't do is used by right-wing populists against effective climate protection. In the tension between short-, medium- and long-term existential fears caused by rising living costs on the one hand and the climate catastrophe on the other, all of which are rational, there is no room for such vanity.