{"id":105106,"date":"2025-05-16T02:26:09","date_gmt":"2025-05-16T02:26:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/105106\/"},"modified":"2025-05-16T02:26:09","modified_gmt":"2025-05-16T02:26:09","slug":"is-germanys-powerful-finance-minister-in-over-his-head-politico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/105106\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Germany\u2019s powerful finance minister in over his head? \u2013 POLITICO"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cWhen somebody concentrates all power into their hands, then of course that person will be held responsible for their mistakes,\u201d said one SPD politician, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss internal party matters. In the past, Klingbeil could always blame the party\u2019s failures on others \u2014 including Olaf Scholz\u2019s unpopularity \u2014 said the parliamentarian. But now, the parliamentarian added, Klingbeil is \u201cthe one who has to deliver.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018On the edge of the cliff\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

The son of a soldier and a retail clerk, Klingbeil grew up in the military town of Munster in northern Germany \u2014 home to one of the German army\u2019s largest bases. Disapproving of the military\u2019s hierarchical nature, he was one of the few men in his high school class to forgo military service.<\/p>\n

Rather, Klingbeil played guitar in rock bands growing up, including one called Pflaumenmus, or \u201cPlum Jam,\u201d and once joked that he wanted to be a punk rock star<\/a>, but \u201csomehow no one else wanted that.\u201d The finance minister still keeps his guitars on hand in his home and office<\/a>, and playing them, he once said, \u201cis for me like meditation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"\u201cOverall, he\u2019s a very friendly, sociable guy,\u201d said Ralf Stegner, a senior SPD parliamentarian who has known Klingbeil for over two decades. | Markus Scholz\/picture alliance via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Klingbeil, by his own account, was the first person in his family to attend university, studying political science in Hannover. For a stint, he interned at an SPD-affiliated foundation in Manhattan, where he witnessed the 9\/11 attacks, an experience, he has said, that sparked a long-term interest in security policy.<\/p>\n

Klingbeil entered the German parliament for the first time as a 27-year-old with an eyebrow ring. He was able to work his way up through the party ranks, ultimately shedding the piercing, due to a unique combination of personal attributes: the ability to be friendly, charming and persuasive, while also acting as a ruthless power broker when needed, according to SPD members speaking to POLITICO on condition of anonymity.<\/p>\n

\u201cOverall, he\u2019s a very friendly, sociable guy,\u201d said Ralf Stegner, a senior SPD parliamentarian who has known Klingbeil for over two decades. \u201cPeople who are like that are easily underestimated, because that\u2019s not the usual style in politics.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cWhen somebody concentrates all power into their hands, then of course that person will be held responsible for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":105107,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5310],"tags":[7668,1194,29,2825,473,33,2000,299,474,1945,32345,7336,11070,1824,6084,1197,2597,809,46,48284,1201,12340,50],"class_list":{"0":"post-105106","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-germany","8":"tag-boris-pistorius","9":"tag-budget","10":"tag-career","11":"tag-debt","12":"tag-defense","13":"tag-elections","14":"tag-eu","15":"tag-europe","16":"tag-finance","17":"tag-friedrich-merz","18":"tag-gerhard-schroder","19":"tag-german-election-2025","20":"tag-german-politics","21":"tag-germany","22":"tag-infrastructure","23":"tag-investment","24":"tag-military","25":"tag-negotiations","26":"tag-policy","27":"tag-ralf-stegner","28":"tag-trade","29":"tag-welfare","30":"tag-youth"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114515147733672928","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105106"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105106\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/105107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}