In political Berlin, in some stories of all the tough negotiation rounds after the Bundestag election, almost heroic acts with the name Alexander Dobrindt combine. This already started with the struggle for the two -thirds majority in the old Bundestag, when even the Greens found at least internally friendly words about Dobrindt’s appearance in the negotiations, while they also publicly complained about the acting of Friedrich Merz. Dobrindt managed to find access to the Green Group Chairman and thus also prepare a way for the compromise. This continued into the last trains of the coalition negotiations. And not only because Dobrindt had already gained a lot of experience in it, in contrast to most others on the Union side, on Sunday and Monday, shortly before the negotiations were completed, the situation had worsened according to matching reports. The SPD page had presented papers for tax increases of various kinds at the weekend. Merz made it clear on Monday at the next round of negotiations in the Bavarian State Representation that this could not be done with him that his personal loan was exhausted. Apparently he was ready to go to the Federal President and to cut the matter. Dobrindt is said to have been the man who brought the negotiations back into running. He was reported to how he is said to have contributed to reducing the tensions in four-eye conversations with the SPD chairman Lars Klingbeil and finally finding a solution. Specifically, it was obviously run like that: Dobrindt was sitting in their room with the Union people and saw how Klingbeil, who was in a different room, came away. He went to him, asked him if the SPD really wanted to drive the conversations on the wall. Klingbeil is said to have assured him, that was not the case. Dobrindt asked his people if they would agree if he spoke with Klingbeil in four eyes. Answer: Then try it. He sent Klingbeil a text message. Go to him, talked to him about the big picture, the country, the parties, went back to his people, asked if he could make the SPD an offer. Then he went to Klingbeil with a piece of paper, on which he had noted a few key points: Soli is not abolished, super depreciation comes, corporate tax is reduced, relief for income tax. The two kept consulting with their people, Dobrindt with the bosses Söder and Merz, they met again and again, the paper grew and was finally condensed into the essentials. Two days later, on Wednesday, the party leaders of the CDU, CSU and SPD presented the coalition agreement to the public. Dobrindt was sitting in the audience with the other ties. There is nothing in the coalition agreement of tax increases. In the grand coalition under Angela Merkel, he was considered an Olaf Scholz-understander. With Andrea Nahles, he was almost friendly in particular as a SPD parliamentary group leader. But Klingbeil? He does it, but had not had to do it with him so far. Nahes once said the FAS about Dobrindt that he was a good negotiator because he respected the other when he realizes that he has been having something on it, and because he was always well prepared. “A professional”, “a worthy opponent”. When the grand coalition once hooked off in the dispute over paragraph 219a, which regulated the advertising ban on abortions, Merkel Nahles and Dobrindt asked the cow to get off the ice – they managed. This time it was Dobrindt seriously. He was “completely in the tunnel” during the coalition negotiations, says a confidant of him, but what comes afterwards? It is currently considered quite likely that Dobrindt will take over the Federal Ministry of the Interior. With flying flags, however, he does not do it, as you hear. There are also people around them who advise him. The Ministry of the Interior is not necessarily a winning ministry in the CSU. Your own people expect a lot, that is: hard measures. But they are not easy to put in the factory, and if it works, you don’t make yourself popular in some parts of the public, then it says quickly: Yes, where is the “C” in the CSU? Being the interior minister also changes life: you have to be in a habitual position around the clock, because there is a risk of a attack at any time you have to comment on. You are also guarded around the clock. Not a nice view for Dobrindt, who is married – he is married and has a son – sacred. A tactician as a strategy binding is firm in domestic policy issues, but above all a generalist and, as one who says, who knows him well, a “perfect manager of power”. One could also say: a physicist of power. The son of a graduate engineer and a housewife can explain en détail and quite convincingly why, if you put a little more pressure on this topic and let the topic loose, the voters will move in this or that direction. However, this is how to overestimate the predictability of politics. The sharp demarcation to the Greens, to which he already advised Söder in his “green phase”, has not materialized as hoped for in votes. In general, Dobrindt’s considerations are sometimes more tactical than strategic nature. When his inner-party opponent Manfred Weber advised to deal with the Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Dobrindt took the opportunity to profile himself as an anti-fascist bulwark against Weber-Meloni together with Söder. In view of the importance that Meloni has won since then, there is not much to hear. Dobrindt himself promoted for this. As a minister, he might not belong to this – as a state group leader. There are also warning examples of switching to the ministerial office. Michael Glos first. The long -standing state group leader did not become happy as Minister of Economy. Dobrindt himself was not entirely unlike in the Federal Ministry of Transport. There he worked on the implementation of the car toll, which works in the 2013 election campaign and had at least briefly attributed the CSU to old heights. But then he literally did not put them on the street. With a few close employees, he dug in the ministry at the time – it is more of his thing to go out, analyze, attack, play. It is not for nothing that he had his best times as CSU general secretary and just as the state group leader-two related offices. Of course, the Dobrindt of today is no longer that of that time. He still thinks in snappy headings, but provocations such as the “cucumber troops” allegation against the FDP, the “Falmmünzer” suggestion against the former ECB president Mario Draghi or the proclamation of a “conservative revolution” have not been handed over for a long time. In addition, he may not have much more than to accept the ministerial office. If he would not do it, this would possibly be interpreted as a refusal of duty compared to the very valued fatherland. Incidentally, the constellation is cheaper today than it was around 2018 to 2021 for Interior Minister Horst Seehofer, who was crossed in refugee policy with Merkel. The Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann, who could most likely be the friendly face of the rejections, probably does not want to be considered a man of the future and would come from the outside, without a Bundestag mandate, which would be bad for him and would not be welcome by the state group. Andrea Lindholz, another, whose name was brought into play for the interior department every now and then (even if it is a state secretary), has already been transported away on the post of the Bundestag Vice President. In particular, this personnel is interesting. If Lindholz minister would not be Dorothee Bär. She is also a woman from Lower Franconia – but is much closer to Dobrindt. Like him, she came to the Bundestag in 2002, both belong to the “Zugspitzkreis”. On the highest mountain in Germany, located in Dobrindt’s Upper Bavarian homeland, several young CSU politicians teamed up in 2007 to support Prime Minister Edmund Stoiber at the time-and to insure mutual career aid. The circle had to have springs, for example through the departure of Andreas Scheuer, but always manages to position themselves and tie new people to themselves, and at least Dobrindt was unanimously confirmed in the office of state group leader. Nevertheless, his power is clearly limited. This still has to be emphasized in a text in which Markus Söder – possibly also according to Dobrindt’s taste – has only occurred on the edge. It is the CSU boss who ends up for the cabinet post for his party. Dobrindt cannot be dangerous either. In Bavaria he has no real power base, and although he can work in a small circle, he is not one who has the hearts or even the laughs, for example in the beer tent. Dobrindt was clearly assigned to the Seehofer camp. His maneuverability, but also his indisputability, shows that he could also keep himself up under his adversary Söder. The fact that he is now spoiled for choice between different offices is anything but a matter of course under Söder.
Will he be interior minister? Alexander Dobrindt in portrait
