Question of confidence: How Merz and Mützenich use stairwell diplomacy

Handelsblatt Question of confidence: How Merz and Mützenich use stairwell diplomacy Delhaes, Daniel • 2 hours • 4 minutes reading time Union Chancellor candidate Friedrich Merz is to schedule the vote of confidence with SPD parliamentary group leader Rolf Mützenich. Both get on well, but they will not talk about it - officially. At the beginning of last week, Friedrich Merz never tired of pointing out an article at every party committee meeting - in the presidium, in the federal executive board, in the parliamentary group: The "Frankfurter Allgemeine" had portrayed Rolf Mützenich, the chairman of the SPD parliamentary group. It was about his enormous power, about how Mützenich, as a convinced pacifist and friend of Russia, had prevented drones for the Bundeswehr, how Defense Minister Boris Pistorius had set guidelines and ordered the Chancellor to report in the budget dispute. "Anyone who thinks it would be easy to govern with the SPD should read the article," Merz is said to have recommended to his people. Now Merz and Mützenich, of all people, are supposed to arrange the most important date for the Chancellor and clarify when he will ask the question of confidence after the breakdown of the traffic light coalition so that new elections can be held. "The fact that I ask the question of confidence before Christmas is no problem for me at all," Scholz said on Sunday evening on ARD, adding that his parliamentary group leader and Merz should agree on a date. "I will base my decision on that," he said. Merz, who turned 69 this Monday, is said to have not thought long about the proposal and rejected it. Not because of his 65-year-old counterpart Mützenich, on the contrary: even if the two are "worlds apart" in terms of content, as those close to Merz say, they worked together "closely and trustingly." "What they discuss does not get out." The lawyer Merz and the political scientist Mützenich also used the shortest official channels, like Peter Struck and Volker Kauder once did: a separate staircase that connects the office of the Union parliamentary group leader with the office of the SPD parliamentary group leader one floor below. Sometimes Mützenich comes upstairs, then Merz comes downstairs, unnoticed by the public, it is said. Merz from the Sauerland and Mützenich from the Rhineland, however, are not friends like Struck and Kauder once were. However, the SPD politician did and did enjoy attending the CDU and CSU summer party and had warm words for his CDU colleague Merz in a speech, participants report. Mützenich is "pleasant to deal with and courteous like Merz". Both of them have one thing. Merz's relationship with other parliamentary group leaders is not nearly as good, neither with the FDP leadership nor with the Greens' double leadership - and certainly not with the SPD leaders Lars Klingbeil and Saskia Esken, who never miss an opportunity to agitate against Merz. Now Merz and Mützenich should ensure that the government crisis does not develop into a constitutional crisis - or rather: should. The Chancellor's offer is "ridiculous," said the Union leadership on Monday. On the one hand, Scholz wants to demote Merz from candidate for chancellor to parliamentary group leader. On the other hand, he wants to distract from his own responsibility. After all, the Basic Law stipulates that the Chancellor asks the question of confidence and then the Federal President dissolves Parliament and sets an election date. It is not up to Parliament to decide on its own dissolution and to set a date for the Chancellor. Merz and Mützenich would at best seek a conversation in the confidential setting of stairwell diplomacy. Accordingly, parliamentary group manager Thorsten Frei announced that the Chancellor should not throw up any "smokescreens". "In this process, it is up to the Chancellor alone to end the drama and open the door to a new beginning." Green Party leader Ricarda Lang also called on Scholz to create "clarity this week". The FDP made a similar argument. Even today, members of the Union parliamentary group are still telling each other how difficult the meeting between Scholz and Merz last week was. While the CDU leader urged Scholz to ask the question of confidence quickly after the coalition broke up and not wait until January 15, the Chancellor emphasized how successfully the traffic light coalition had led the country through the crisis, which he described as the "most serious crisis" since the founding of the Federal Republic. Now it is still important to pass significant laws. The SPD is looking for a way out of the debate Mützenich defended the Chancellor's stance. The Union is "building up a bogeyman again," he said on Friday. People did not want to talk about dates. They wanted to know whether child benefit would increase, whether they could continue to use the Deutschlandticket or whether the state would relieve energy-intensive companies of their burden.