WHERE IS GERMANY GOING?
Robert Misik in conversation with Wolfgang Schmidt
„Where is Germany going?“
In one of the most delicate phases of the post-war era, an era is coming to an end in Germany: Angela Merkel is stepping down as Chancellor and the entire political system in the most important country in the European Union could be shaken up in the Bundestag elections in September. The Greens and the CDU/CSU are currently engaged in a duel at the top, while the SPD wants to turn the duel into a three-way fight. That alone would be historic: for the first time, three parties have a realistic chance of taking the top spot. And all this in an overall political environment in which an economic policy paradigm shift is taking place in the European Union, away from neoliberal concepts and towards modern concepts of welfare and equality.
The Social Democrat Wolfgang Schmidt, State Secretary in the German Federal Ministry of Finance, is a central figure in all these issues: as the closest confidant of the SPD candidate for Chancellor, he can explain how the Social Democrats want to get back into the race for first place in this election campaign, and as a key architect of a new EU economic and financial policy, he can provide information on how to change course step by step.
Wolfgang Schmidt (born 23 September 1970 in Hamburg) is a German politician (SPD) and lawyer. He has been State Secretary at the Federal Ministry of Finance since March 2018. From March 2011 to March 2018, he was State Councillor in the Hamburg Senate Chancellery and Plenipotentiary of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg to the Federal Government, the European Union and for Foreign Affairs.
Schmidt is a close confidant and political companion of the German Federal Minister of Finance, Olaf Scholz (SPD).
Robert Misik, Author and journalist