What do you see? Daniel Häni sees a political opportunity in Berlin.
I am pleased about Elif Eralp’s election victory in Berlin. However, a left-left-green government will only tear itself apart and further strengthen the AfD—and in the capital of all places!
Yesterday, the Public Secrets Ensemble’s “organ of perception” focused on Hannah Arendt. According to Arendt, moral individuality consists in acting out of a sense of full personal responsibility, beyond socially prescribed rules and expectations. A friend from Berlin asked how Arendt’s analysis of German history might relate to Eralp’s election victory.
One word struck me like a bolt of lightning: concordance!
The idea: following the exploratory talks, Eralp could form a “concordance government” that incorporates all relevant political forces! If she were to truly do this, drawing upon the strength of her own individuality, it could mark a historic turning point for all of Germany and Europe.
With such a move she would command the attention of the global public even more than Zohran Mamdani did in New York. Eralp could use this action to transform the prevailing “everything’s shit” mood (as described by the author Juli Zeh) in Germany into a positive, practical perspective. And last but not least, it would be a powerful starting point for demystifying—and dismantling the allure of—the AfD.
More Public Secrets
Translation Paula Boslau
Image Daniel Häni, photo: Enno Schmidt
