Election Excitement in the State of Limbo
Election excitement not, that is. Berlin will be holding local elections in two weeks and nobody here could care less. It’s not because it’s a foregone conclusion (it is, the present red-redder government will be reelected), nobody cares because there’s no middle-of-the-road opposition here to replace them. That’s because Berlin doesn’t have a middle-of-the-road.
Nobody in this town stands for everybody (that’s why everybody let’s nobodies govern them ha, ha, ha). But in all fairness, how could anybody stand for everybody in a city like Berlin? This big city is the biggest collection of small towns you can possibly imagine. And that’s why the city has always been run by small town politicians.
Let’s start counting: There’s the federal government small town, there’s the 290,000 unemployed small town, then the foreign population (predominantly Muslim) small town, the student and young, dynamic and innovative startup small town, the 41 percent of the city’s population receiving some kind of government payment small town, the allotment gardening (Schrebergarten) small town, the long-abandoned traditional industry small town, the “alternative” and Communist-in-denial left small town, the neo-Nazi small town, the mass tourism small town, and, of course, the provincial city government small town. I’m just naming a few here, of course.
But more importantly, Berlin is in debt to the tune of 60 billion euros. And most of this debt was made after the reunification. This is the crux of the biscuit. Nobody believes for a moment that this debt will ever be paid off, of course, and this is one of the main reasons why Berliners fluctuate the way they do between a strange mix of resignation and “fatalistic” optimism; fatalistic in that it seems to be their fate to be optimistic, no matter what. Es kann nur besser werden (it can only get better).
And although the city has made progress in balancing its budget, or because of this very fact, Berlin is banking on the suit it has brought before the Bundesverfassungsgericht (Germany’s Supreme Court) in an attempt to have some of this crushing debt written off by the federal government. But until that happens, should it ever happen, the city will remain in a slightly drugged state of limbo, or it least it seems like they’re on ecstasy to me. Everyone remains calm, alles wird gut (everything will turn out okay). Nobody cares about actually addressing the problems. They can’t because they’re broke and therefore have no choice but not to care.
That’s why Berlin will keep its present government. It will continue to keep its budget in line and govern in this comfortable straightjacket it now wears. It will continue not investing in creating new jobs, because it can’t. It will continue not doing enough about its high overhead on bureaucracy and bureaucrats and its Filz (government sleaze) because it won’t (tradition is tradition, whether you’re broke or not).
Besides, Berliners have been through a lot worse than this little episode. And they are very patient by nature. They’ll just sit it out, you see. So hey, who cares? Let’s just get this election over with and get all these election posters removed ASAP. Berlin is “poor but sexy”, and a little limbo never hurt anybody.