"Maischberger. Die Woche “(ARD): Birthday with Andreas Scheuer

At “Maischberger. The week “in the first is the central point of an interview with Federal Transport Minister Andreas Scheuer.

Berlin – There are probably nicer things to wish for a birthday than meeting Andreas Scheuer. The fixed Wednesday program slot of her program has determined it this year and Sandra Maischberger presents herself for the 55th time with a smile on her face, well prepared and quick-witted when it comes to commenting on the smug statements of the controversial Federal Minister of Transport. That and the other invited guests – the journalism colleagues: Antonia Rados, Gabor Steingart and Hans-Ulrich Jörges as well as the sympathetic Olympic wrestler Frank Stäbler and the Long Covid specialist Dr. Jördis Frommhold – at the end of the day ensure that the “overall party” is a success, even though the mix of motto is of course a more serious one.

“Maischberger. Die Woche “: German state failure in Afghanistan

Entry into the program “Maischberger. The week “at ARD is the dramatic, unpredictable and dynamic situation in Afghanistan, which has been the topic of the hour worldwide for over a week. Maischberger’s commentators sketch the current state of affairs and almost unanimously accuse politics of complete state failure. RTL foreign chief reporter Antonia Rados is mainly responsible for the first part. She is happy for those who made it into one of the planes in Kabul. At the same time, using the example of around one hundred Afghan women who have worked for non-governmental organizations in recent years, she denounces that there are still a large number of people who are likely to be denied exit for the time being and who are in great danger. In some areas, decisions by the respective Taliban fighters might be made in a comparatively moderate manner, in others, however, draconian Sharia punishments are threatened. Much will change in the country now, the new rulers would try to dictate conditions to the West and at least one would have to make concessions.

Ex-“Stern” -author Hans-Ulrich Jörges puts it in a nutshell: The federal government wanted to avoid accepting new refugees in the election year and therefore did not carry out the evacuations and then the troop withdrawal months ago. The Foreign Office and its minister Heiko Maas are also the “losers of the week” for Jörges – in his opinion, the SPD politician should no longer belong to any federal government from the end of September onwards. Gabor Steingart is extremely similar and names Maas, Federal Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer and BND boss Bruno Kahl, the three main responsible people who only came to their posts by chance and political games, not through departmental competence. But also the US presidents most significantly responsible for the developments – the old and the new – get their fat off: Donald Trump, who had initiated the troop withdrawal in 2020 in the first place and who is now accusing the political opponent of the disastrous implementation with the expected calculation, but also Joe Biden, who could have stopped or changed his predecessor’s plans if he had only wanted to.

“Maischberger. The week “: Rezo and Andreas Scheuer’s Achilles heel

Change of subject and appearance by Andreas Scheuer, who initially congratulates Maischberger on his birthday. The toll minister is anything but happy about excerpts from the “heute show” and the YouTuber Rezo channel, in which he is showered with malice and criticism. Nevertheless, he makes it clear: he definitely wants to continue his job, if only you let him. Investments in infrastructure in the country have doubled in the last ten years. The budget he is responsible for will put more money into the railways than into road traffic for the first time in 2022. When expanding the telecommunications network, he was aware of the problem of the infinitely slow approval process and was a thorn in his side – it was urgently necessary to speed up here, which was also initiated in 2019 by expansion obligations for the providers. Scheuer’s argument is even quite conclusive up to this point.

That changes, however, when Maischberger starts talking about his Achilles verse: the car toll that crashed before the European Court of Justice. 500 million euros from taxpayers’ money may have been burned because Scheuer signed contracts at an early stage, although nothing was yet dry, according to the aggressive moderator. Here the CSU minister refers to the federal government’s intention to emerge harmless from the ongoing arbitration proceedings and to its absolution by the investigative committee. Maischberger moves to “Maischberger. Die Woche ”(ARD) rightly does most of it, however, and names inconsistencies and dubious procedures that are better remembered than the unreflected attempts at self-adulation and explanation by the minister.

“Maischberger. Die Woche “: You have to have a little choice

The interview ends with the topic of chancellorship, which means that Scheuer is bid farewell and the journalists are allowed to become active again instead. Hans-Ulrich Jörges sees a preliminary stage to the electoral defeat of the CDU / CSU because Armin Laschet is left alone by his party and calls him a “foggy candidate” who appears sympathetic but has no ideas and cannot mobilize people. The Greens had also put up the wrong candidate with Annalena Baerbock and Olaf Scholz and the dumbly enthusiastic SPD had chances above all because the competition would not ignite.

Gabor Steingart sees the outcome of the election more openly and does not believe Laschet, as a man in the middle, to be out of the running – after all, it is the middle that decides the general election. The Greens would “get on board” and score with their core issues, while Scholz is actually the one who, at least recently, has not made any mistakes and is therefore currently experiencing so much upswing. The Austrian Antonia Rados, on the other hand, includes the situation in her home country in her statement. There, the Greens have formed the government with the conservative ÖVP since 2020. As in Germany, however, the former would not develop their own profile there, because once green issues were now taken up by all parties, even the conservatives.

“Maischberger. Die Woche “: The Long Covid phenomenon

For the finale, it will be about the corona pandemic again, this time about people who suffer from “long covid”, i.e. from long-term consequences after having been through Covid-19 disease. Sandra Maischberger and pulmonologist Dr. Jördis Frommhold and the wrestler Frank Stäbler, who won the bronze medal at the Olympic Games three weeks ago. He fell ill with Covid-19 in October, but had only mild symptoms and started training again after a two-week break. However, during a performance test, he got breathlessness and it was found that his lung volume had decreased by twenty percent. With the help of lengthy breathing therapy, the professional athlete managed to get his long covid symptoms under control and to fulfill his lifelong dream in Tokyo at the end of his career.

Dr. Jördis Frommhold adds to his descriptions: Problems with the auxiliary respiratory muscles are relatively easy to treat, while this is more difficult with symptoms of exhaustion or cognitive dropouts. About ten percent of all sick people are affected by Long Covid. She is ambivalent about turning away from the incidence values: On the one hand, factors such as hospitalizations and intensive care beds should play an important role. On the other hand, politicians must finally pay attention to the dangers posed by Long Covid – after all, this often affects 20 to 50-year-olds who are actually in the middle of life and who work, who have to look after children and relatives, but can no longer do so for a long time . With this haunting closing remarks from the doctor, Sandra Maischberger ends her program “Maischberger. Die Woche “(ARD) – and hopefully will be able to celebrate another birthday afterwards. Without Andreas Scheuer, of course. (Peter Hoch)