More Spirit than Bremse
Rapid decision making has never been a German hallmark. Traditionally decisions take endless rounds of discussion, spreadsheets, cost benefit analyses, powerpoint presentations before they even get in-front of the assistant to the assistant of someone who might possibly know someone who could make them. That was the culture from middle sized businesses to the top of German government. It was slow, it could be soul crushing, but that was the way things had been done and would be done until the end of time, or so we all thought. Now we live in the era of the “Zeitenwende” or Turning Point, where sudden decisions on the military spending or restarting coal fuelled power plants are seemingly made overnight. Well, not quite overnight, maybe over a few weeks, maybe a month minimum. Even still, compared to the world before, we’re moving at light speed .
The scale of the changes occurring in Germany, precipitated by Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, have been nothing short of startling. I’ve often bemoaned the resistance to change exhibited in so many areas of German life, but all over the country there have been examples of a new willingness to do just that. Whether it’s Berliners waiting patiently at train stations to offer what space they have in their homes to Ukrainian refugees, or the many polls showing majority support for the new direction of travel for the German military and foreign policy, the Ukraine crisis has seemingly galvanised Germans against their fears of doing things differently. In fairness, the images of Berliners offering their spare rooms to newly arrived refugees mirrors those seen in Munich in 2015, so perhaps it’s the case that German pragmatism trumps any reluctance to change.
Then again, I don’t want to paint too rosy a picture. Not all change is welcomed so warmly or so pragmatically. This week the news was filled with images of petrol station forecourts as discussions on spiralling fuel prices took centre stage. As I write my local Tankestelle is offering Diesel at €2.31 and Petrol at €2.22 per litre. To give some perspective, I was complaining to my wife only a month ago that we were paying €1.79 pl. This jump in price has been met by calls for a Spritpreisbremse or fuel price brake from opposition politicians and the Allgemeiner Deutscher Automobil-Club (ADAC). Demands for an immediate VAT cut to bring prices down to a more reasonable level is just another nail in the coffin of Germany’s apparatus of slow decision making.
Leading the vanguard of calls for a Spritpreisbremse is the Ministerpräsident of the state of Saarland, Tobias Hans. Earlier this week Hans went viral as he stood before a local petrol station forecourt and declared "A fuel price brake is now needed,”. Bold stuff from the CDU politician, showing just how comfortable even opposition politicians now are with rapid decision making. Of course, it might be all the more stirring if it wasn’t for the fact that Hans is facing a state election in a couple of weeks. Far be it from me to suggest he’s jumping on the fuel crisis for immediate political gain, but he did slightly betray his intentions when he argued that high fuel prices would hit low-earners and then continued that it “affects the many hard-working people who have to refuel. Those who drive to work, who take their children to sports.”. The middle class are obviously the target audience for such appeals, but even still it seems remarkably callous of Hans to separate the “hardworking people” driving their kids to tennis practice and “low-earners”. Maybe he assumes they can’t afford social media.
Tobias Hans was joined by his CDU colleagues across the country as they demanded action from Chancellor Olaf Scholz and his traffic light coalition. Unluckily for the cause, they were also joined by disgraced former Bild Zeitung editor and chief, and horseman of the shit-pocalypse Julian Reichelt, who having been fired after a sexual misconduct probe is now in the Linton Travel Lodge phase of his midlife crisis. Looking like a German Nigel Farage Tribute act in his wax jacket, Reichelt joined the massed ranks of the CDU calling for more immediate decisions to be made.
Although many of the arguments for some kind of price brake have increased this week, it does appear to be rather a terrible idea. As Hans and Reichelt et al will tell you, German fuel taxes are higher than many other EU nations, the suggestion of cutting fuel duty from 19% to 7% sounds good for an election campaign or a cheap attempt at self-promotion, but the impact could be negligible. After all, there are no guarantees that prices will stay at the same level, in fact chances are they’ll increase. What would the plan be then? Fuel rationing? Fuel subsidisation? I don’t know, but I await the reply in the form of a shaky camera phone video.
Instead of shortsighted tax cuts, there is another possible route out of this. The suggestion of a temporary enforcement of strict speed limits on the Autobahn is one very realistic option. According to calculations by the Federal Environment Agency, a car that drives 90 km/h instead of 110 km/h uses almost a quarter less fuel over the same distance. In addition, environmental campaigners Deutsche Umwelthilfe calculated that 3.7 billion liters of fuel could be saved with the implementation of a standard speed limit. Other ideas floated have been calls for individuals to use more public transport or to take a bike instead. While arguments rage over solutions to rising fuel prices, there are those who aren’t even sure that there’s even a real problem. Stefan Bratzel of the Center of Automotive Management pointed out that driving 10% less might save as much as two Euros per litre more.
Ultimately a decision will have to come from the government. Anyone who has driven on a German road, especially in Bavaria, will know how much haulage moves across the country. Germany currently has 46,900 companies and many small to medium sized companies with their own delivery trucks. Whether there is a tax reduction for those groups and an introduction of speed limits for the rest of us, time will tell. We may be in the era of rapid decision making, but this is Germany after all, there has to be at least on power point presentation first.
Image Credit
Photo by David Becker on Unsplash
Photo by Hannes Egler on Unsplash
Photo by Javier Allegue Barros on Unsplash
Photo by Wassim Chouak on Unsplash
Photo by Lily Banse on Unsplash
