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‘It’s time Germany got over its speed fetish’

Suggesting speed limits for the autobahn is as politically toxic in Germany as gun control is in America. But it's time to hit the brakes on the country's reckless driving culture, comments The Local's Ben Knight.

'It's time Germany got over its speed fetish'
Photo: DPA

Every country has its own fetish – an object of irrational obsession that touches something deep inside. Something so deep it’s almost sexual. Three symptoms always betray what that thing is:

1) Mocking it can only be done by the country’s radicals.

2) Rational debate on the subject is impossible within that country.

3) Even the mention of legislation to limit its power is categorically taboo.

You’ll see where I’m going: in America the fetish is guns, in the UK it’s deranged people wearing crowns, and in Germany? The autobahn.

Last week, Sigmar Gabriel, chairman of the centre-left Social Democratic Party – a man who should know better – veered onto the hard shoulder of Germany’s obsession with their beautiful concrete strips.

As a casual aside in an interview with the Rheinische Post newspaper, an interview that was mainly about the joint SPD-Green tax programme, Gabriel mentioned that he agreed with the Green party’s long-held policy of introducing a 120 kph (75 mph) speed limit on German motorways.

“The rest of the world has been doing the same for a long time,” he reasoned. “I think a 120 limit makes sense, because the accident statistics show that the number of serious accidents and deaths sink.”

Reasonable enough, no? Apparently not. The reaction was immediate. It was as if Gabriel had suddenly become radioactive. Transport Minister Peter Ramsauer was adamant. “There won’t be a general speed limit on my watch,” he told Der Spiegel. “Our motorways are among the safest roads we have. The worst accidents happen on country roads: around 60 percent of deaths, the latest traffic statistics say.”

More tellingly, Peer Steinbrück, the SPD’s own lead candidate in September’s general election, immediately began the damage limitation, as he watched votes flutter away like sweet-wrappers from the car window. “This is a debate that I’ve known about for over 20 years,” he told state broadcaster WDR. “I have no intention of re-activating this debate now.”

Steinbrück had every reason to be exasperated with his party colleague – Gabriel had gone rogue, veering off the SPD’s election programme that had been unanimously agreed at the party conference in Augsburg in April. The last thing the struggling Social Democrats needed was for their notoriously unguarded chairman to draw fire with an unpopular issue.

But the fact is that Gabriel is clearly on the right side of reason on this one. Ramsauer’s argument is at the same level of fatuous logic as the “guns don’t kill people, people kill people” twaddle that Europeans like to mock so much. The traffic statistic the minister didn’t point out, for instance, was that there are 28 percent more deaths on the stretches of autobahn that don’t have a speed limit as those that do.

If that wasn’t reason enough for a speed limit – and surely it should be more than enough – there are also countless environmental benefits. As long as car manufacturers, for instance, have reason to believe that people want to buy cars that can do 300 kph, obviously they will fill the market with powerful, fuel-guzzling engines whose full power can hardly ever be used. It’s obviously time Germany got over its high-speed fetish.

But no, once again, the debate is being poisoned by a dishonest appeal to “freedom.” Well, if it’s freedom you want, I have a better idea: Why not get rid of those annoying traffic lights and those pesky white lines that divide up roads? Then people can finally drive wherever the hell they want.

Ben Knight

[email protected]

Ben Knight on Twitter

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SPD

Germany edges a step closer to a government led by the Social Democrats

The Social Democrats' Olaf Scholz said that his party together with the Greens and the Free Democrats had a "mandate" to form a government in Germany, after the parties agreed to begin coalition talks.

The SPD's chancellor candidate Olaf Scholz speaks to reporters in Berlin on Wednesday.
The SPD's chancellor candidate Olaf Scholz speaks to reporters in Berlin on Wednesday. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Michael Kappeler

“Voters have given us a mandate to build a government together,” Scholz told journalists after the Greens and the liberal FDP agreed to meet his party Thursday to begin discussions over a possible three-way coalition.

The move brings Scholz a step closer to the chancellery after 16 years of Merkel’s centre-right-led government.

The political upheaval in Germany was unleashed by last month’s general election which Scholz’s centre-left party won with 25.7 percent, followed by Merkel’s centre-right CDU-CSU bloc at 24.1 percent.

For either party to head the next German government it would need the support of the centre-left Greens and the pro-innovation and business Free Democrats (FDP), which came third and fourth.

Despite leading the conservatives to their worst-ever election result, beleaguered CDU leader Armin Laschet insisted he still has a shot at the top job.

Speaking to reporters, Laschet said the conservatives “respect the decision” by the two kingmaker parties to pursue a coalition with the SPD.

But the CDU-CSU is “still ready to hold talks,” he said.

READ ALSO: German coalition talks – Greens want to govern with Social Democrats and FDP

CSU leader Markus Söder however gave a more sobering assessment, saying the possibility of a CDU-CSU government had essentially been “rejected”.

The conservative bloc must now prepare itself for a stint in opposition after four Merkel-led coalitions, he said.

“This will change our country,” Söder said, adding: “The conservatives will enter a new era too.”

Recent surveys suggest most Germans want Scholz, who is also finance minister and vice chancellor, to become the next leader of Germany.

‘Building bridges’ 

Green co-leader Annalena Baerbock said that after preliminary discussions with the SPD and CDU-CSU, the Greens “believe it makes sense” to focus on a tie-up led by the Social Democrats.

Baerbock said Germany faced “great challenges” and needed “a new beginning”.

“This country can’t afford a lengthy stalemate,” she said.

READ ALSO: 10 German words you need to know to keep up with the coalition talks

Greens co-leaders Annalena Baerbock and Robert Habeck give a press conference on Wednesday after exploratory talks.
Greens co-leaders Annalena Baerbock and Robert Habeck give a press conference on Wednesday after exploratory talks. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Kay Nietfeld

The FDP said it had accepted the Greens’ proposal to move on to formal exploratory coalition talks with the SPD.

The first such three-way talks will start on Thursday, FDP leader Christian Lindner said.

The Greens and the FDP are not natural bedfellows, diverging on key issues including taxation, climate protection and public spending.

But both parties have said they also have common ground and want to “build bridges” in order to govern.

All sides are eager to avoid a repeat of the 2017 election aftermath, when the FDP dramatically walked out of coalition talks with the conservatives and the Greens and it took months for a new government to take shape.

 ‘Not a done deal’

A tie-up of the SPD, Greens and FDP, which would be a first in Germany, has been dubbed a “traffic light” constellation after the parties’ red, green and yellow colours.

READ ALSO:

Green co-leader Robert Habeck said that while the party shared some common ground with the conservatives, there are “significant differences” too.

Informal talks over the last few days revealed “more overlap” with the Social Democrats, he said, on issues like climate protection, social justice and European integration.

The clear preference for a Scholz-led government is likely to put further pressure on Laschet, whose political future hangs in the balance.

Gaffe-prone Laschet, once seen as a shoo-in for the chancellery, fell out of favour with voters after he was caught laughing during a tribute to victims of Germany’s deadly floods in July.

The FDP however threw Laschet a lifeline by stressing that the conservatives were not out of the running yet.

The FDP’s Lindner said a coalition with the CDU-CSU and the Greens – dubbed a “Jamaica” alliance because the parties’ colours match that country’s
flag – “remains a viable option for us”.

The FDP has served as the junior partner in a conservative-led government before, and they share a dislike for tax hikes, red tape and a relaxation of Germany’s strict debt rules.

Green co-leader Habeck also cautioned that “nothing is a done deal yet”.

Merkel herself is bowing out of politics, although she will stay on in a caretaker capacity throughout the coalition haggling.

By Michelle FITZPATRICK

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