BMI remains #Heimatministerie,” the official statement on Twitter read on December 9th: “Our new name: Federal Ministry of the Interior and Homeland.” It wasn’t just the grammatical challenge of mixing the genitive and accusative in the name that was astounding. Above all, it was a great surprise that the new and first woman at the head of the house, Nancy Faeser, had given up her responsibilities for building but did not seize the opportunity to get rid of her home right away. On the contrary, said the SPD politician, she expressly adheres to it: the term signals that one wants to keep society together. A big project for a small word. Faeser may have had her party colleague Wolfgang Thierse in mind, who a year ago spoke of the need for a community of solidarity in a highly acclaimed guest article for the FAZ: In times of dramatic change, according to Thierse, “the need for social and cultural home is great”.
What Horst Seehofer didn’t have to listen to when he expanded the Federal Ministry of the Interior to include home territory in Merkel’s fourth cabinet in 2018. As a “traditional bear” he was laughed at in social media in view of the newly claimed responsibility, the menu of the BMI canteen was checked for German dishes, there was talk of a minefield, a desperate search for security in the face of a lack of inner home was diagnosed. It cannot be said that the ministry, with its 80,000 employees, made much of its political responsibility for what Martin Walser once described as “the most beautiful name for backwardness”.
#Home #Minister #Faeser #loneliness