Dramatic outpourings and jokers: “Friedrich Merz – our last spontaneous”

t az: Mr. Küppersbusch, what was bad last week?

Friedrich Küppersbusch: Lavrov is going after Wadephul.

Küppersbusch: “Best understanding” was more damaging to Wadephul.

taz: The Berlin Left voted at a party conference on whether to invite the Greens and the SPD to exploratory talks. How do you assess the result?

Küppersbusch: In 2005 and 2013 there were red-red-green majorities in the federal government, the majority voted center-left and got - Merkel in each case. This can be taken into account when people talk about the “strengthening of the edges”. Berlin has been ruled by two or three of the alliance partners for a total of 16 years since 2002, and the state of the city is no compliment to their competence. Both together, however, raise the question of where this huge excitement is coming from. The anti-Semitism debate should at least be conducted in such a way that Jewish Germans can also express their criticism of Netanyahu's war crimes. The big expropriation fun may never come, but the issue of housing shortage has already been addressed more clearly than ever. It is worrying that the Union, SPD and Greens reject the AfD and simply imitate its isolation policy. Should they just reject the left and at the same time imitate their politics, that will be fun.

taz: How goal-oriented do you find the current discussion about the German health insurance system?

Küppersbusch: Friedrich Merz has moved from chaos theory to chaos practice. Election debacle, we urgently need to say something social, I've never sat in the waiting room and just thrown a punch. His CDU colleague Laumann from North Rhine-Westphalia is said to have instigated it, and the SPD can hardly believe its luck for a moment. Unfortunately, the statement has no substance, Merz is sitting at the family doctor with a premature outpouring of drama and is waiting for a referral. His government has apparently cleverly kept secret from him that it is working on a vague “appointment guarantee” and expects great effects from a “primary care model”. So that everyone has to go to the family doctor first and then he throws up a considerable amount, gets sick himself and shuts down. Friedrich Merz – our last spontaneous. If he runs again – his slogan “Just an idea”.

taz: René Benko was sentenced to two and a half years in prison. Is there still justice?

Küppersbusch: You jokers! The verdict relates to a slim investment of 360,000 euros in his private property, while his Sigma Group was already in decline. The 680 million euros from the German state that were burned in “Karstadt Galeria” remain unpunished because the “GmbH” behind “Karstadt Galeria” simply means “limited liability”. Hey, let's go on a human hunt for a few “welfare fraudsters” instead, there's easily 500 euros to be had.

taz: Everyone is talking about Berlin - but we were so shocked by the AfD result in Saxony-Anhalt. What is happening right now?

Küppersbusch: A left-wing Berlin Senate would bring the four missing votes in the Federal Council for the “federal-state group AfD ban”. It may be a minor aspect, but even in Merz's second round of voting and the election of a constitutional judge, it was the communist gang that saved the citizens' asses. The Union takes a paradoxical approach to this: it defines the right-wing extremists as competitors, while the state-supporting left-wingers are seen as enemies. That can happen if you were blue when the early 1930s came along in history.

taz: An AI agent hacked into an Australian government portal that also contained statistics on state health insurance. What would you like to hack?

Küppersbusch: The crazy idea of ​​“slowing down” technological and scientific progress. “I’ll invent the internal combustion engine, but I’ll take a little time with the spark plugs”? “Atom bomb, great idea, we’ll only half build it”? I simply don't believe that we, humanity, can do it: If any nonsense is possible, there will also be a madman who does it. That's what it's been like so far. Always. The example of the atomic bomb shows that we are only able to learn for a limited time after a disaster and that we would therefore have to wish for the AI ​​disaster to happen soon. Things aren't getting any better here, it's better to ask the AI.

taz: Singapore now pays people to read instead of scrolling on their phones. Which book should you get the most money for?

Küppersbusch: I think it's nice when the bookseller also asks: Do you collect points? Wouldn't it be easier if the publishers put the money along with the book?

Küppersbusch: Preußen Münster is charging 38.75 euros for a seat at its home game against RWE. If you even get a ticket for BVB in the first league, it costs half as much. Questions: jdo, waam

Friedrich Küppersbusch is a journalist, producer and outraged (without top pay)