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Berlin Briefing

A weekly look at German politics

15.08.2023 | 19:00 UTC

In this edition: A technical mishap hampers diplomacy; two years after the Bundeswehr pulled out of Afghanistan — has Germany come through on its promise to help its local staff? Is inclusion an ‘ideological luxury project’? And summer is the season to check out Germany’s beer-based beverages.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz meets President Volodymyr Zelenskyy

In August, Berliners mark the construction of the Wall in 1961 and commemorate GDR victims.

Willkommen to DW’s Berlin Briefing

By DW’s Analysis Team

As if to illustrate the general feeling that nothing in Germany works properly anymore, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has been forced to cancel a trip to Australia, New Zealand and Fiji midway, after mechanical problems forced her plane to return to Abu Dhabi – twice.

Germany has one of the largest government fleets in the world, but there have been problems before.

Meanwhile, Chancellor Olaf Scholz is back from his summer vacation in France and is touring the country with his familiar message of confidence and calm: The economic slump is not here to stay, his center-left coalition will pull together and tackle all problems, he says.

But many in Germany are skeptical — for a reason, as DW’s Chief Political Correspondent Nina Haase explains.

One of the well-known factors weighing the country down is its creaky, dysfunctional bureaucracy. Economy Minister Robert Habeck has again identified it as a major obstacle to investment and spoke of a thicket that must now be cleared out.

Germany’s notorious infrastructure woes are a case in point. They are impacting logistics and threatening production sites around the country. But road and rail construction projects require meticulous planning procedures including studies into the environmental impact and the involvement of local communities that cause a delay by several years.

The transport and justice ministries are planning to simplify procedures. But streamlining public administration remains a major challenge in a country that lags behind in digitalization.

The cost of the paper trail

Companies and private individuals are clamoring for a simple, digital way to get administrative things done. Digitalization of the public sector has long been described as a top priority, but after sluggish progress, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser does not want to pour more money into this transition process.

Afghanistan: Promises made — promises kept?

It has been two years since the international military mission in Afghanistan collapsed and the Islamist Taliban returned to power.

Under chaotic conditions, Germany’s Bundeswehr evacuated both Germans and Afghans who had assisted German organizations for many years in military and civilian capacities. Until today, around 30,000 local staff and other individuals considered to be at risk came to Germany. But thousands of vulnerable people are still waiting to leave the country whose economy is reliant on international aid.

Meanwhile, German weekly Der Spiegel warns that a similar situation is developing in Niger and Mali, where local staff are asking the Bundeswehr not to leave them behind when they pull out.

A rethink has begun in the German government, suggesting pragmatism rather than an idealistic and value-based foreign policy when it comes to Afghanistan.

The chairman of the German parliament’s Afghanistan investigative committee, Ralf Stegner from Chancellor Scholz’s Social Democrat party, has advocated establishing contacts with the Taliban regime in order to help the people in the country.

Afghanistan: What happened to Germany’s local staff?

Many local Afghan employees who assisted German forces are still waiting for help.

Inclusion – an ‘ideological project’?

Björn Höcke, the notorious extreme-right head of the regional Thuringia branch of the far-right populist Alternative for Germany (AfD), has triggered outrage yet again.

In an interview with public broadcaster MDR, the former teacher from western Germany suggested scrapping what he termed “ideological projects such as inclusion in schools” in a bid to reform the ailing education system.

He was referring to the inclusion of children with disabilities into the regular school system.

Since 2009, the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities also requires access to regular schools for children with special needs. This has proved helpful in preparing children with special needs to lead more independent lives and requiring less assistance in later years.

Höcke’s remarks were seen as further proof that the populist party advocates exclusion and discrimination of disabled people, as well as immigrants and the queer community.