Germany's Undernourished Democracy

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,775454,00.html

A democracy is fed with words, they stimulate the organism of a society. Politics comes alive and becomes recognizable and comprehensible in discourse. Positions become apparent, as do the affirmation and rejection of individual issues. If discourse is successful, it creates affirmation of democracy and politics as a whole.

In Germany at the moment, that discourse is far from successful. The country is suffering from malnutrition and undernourishment , it is wasting away. The right words are missing, especially words coming from the chancellor. Angela Merkel refuses to engage in a discourse on any of the most important issues. The head of Germany's government is serving up but a thin broth, if anything at all.

She has never been known for her grandiloquence, she is not a tribune of the people but an engineer of power. This has always been regrettable, but now it is becoming harmful. She has made some weighty decisions this year: her government has pushed through a radically new energy policy, has pursued a restrictive policy on the European common currency and has approved the export of tanks to Saudi Arabia. Each of these decisions should have been accompanied by major speeches, but the speeches Merkel has given have been minor at best.

Her political communication is a disaster, and there are three reasons for this: incompetence, secretiveness and paternalism.