How can one govern today, Mr Schmidt?
Robert Misik in conversation with Wolfgang Schmidt
How can one govern today, Mr Schmidt?
From the engine room of power
Governing today: difficulties, complexities and dilemmas. Whichever country you look at, frustrated voters and media commentators are in agreement: those in power are achieving nothing, they become entrenched in conflicts, and everything moves too slowly. At the same time, parliaments increasingly consist of a multitude of small and medium-sized parties, which subsequently are forced into complicated coalitions that constantly require compromises – which then only serves to increase frustration.
How is governing even possible in such scenarios – and how can the expectations of the population be met? How do you keep partners together in the engine room of governments and ensure that things move forward quietly? How do you pursue long-term plans, the fruits of which are then, at best, harvested by successor governments?
And not least: how is progressive governance possible in the 21st century – and how can European social democratic parties be brought forward again.
There is probably hardly a better conversation partner for all these topics than Wolfgang Schmidt, Olaf Scholz's long-time associate, Minister of the Chancellery in the traffic light coalition, and former State Secretary in the German Federal Ministry of Finance.
Wolfgang Schmidt (* 23 September 1970 in Hamburg) is a German politician (SPD). From 2021 to 2025, he was Federal Minister for Special Affairs and, as such, Head of the Federal Chancellery in the Scholz cabinet. In this capacity, he was also the Federal Commissioner for Intelligence Services.
From March 2011 to March 2018, Schmidt was State Councillor of the Hamburg Senate Chancellery and Plenipotentiary of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg to the Federation, the European Union and for Foreign Affairs, and subsequently until December 2021 Secretary of State in the Federal Ministry of Finance.
Moderation
Robert Misik, Author and journalist