Gang of criminals

Once upon a time, a German politician named Wolfgang Schäuble met with an arms dealer. Only once, said Schäuble when confessing his nefarious action to the German parliament. However, he managed to forget that he received 100,000 Deutschmarks in cash during this meeting.

It was a tough time for the conservative party in Germany end of the last millenium. Dodgy ways to finance the party became public, suitcases of large amounts of cash, Swiss bank accounts and other schemes looking just like money laundry were unveiled. The social-democrats had taken over the government, and the conservatives were looking for new leadership.

Angela Merkel promised to 'sort out' the internal affairs, and bring honesty back into the party. For a while, she distanced herself of the icons of this scandal and tried to establish her position as 'leader' of the conservative party.

Angela Merkel became the first female chancellor in Germany, with high hopes that a coalition of German's two major party could overcome the indecisive inertia to tackle urging problems (like in many places, education, medical welfare, pensions and employment lack structure, commitment and resources). This hopes remained unfulfilled, the militarization of everyday life dominated politics.

Now, after she won the election and got rid of coalition with the social democrats, it was time to present her chosen ministers. A dutch journalist dared to ask Angela Merkel whether someone who meets up with arms dealers and 'forgets' about 100,000 Deutschmark in cash in his desk drawer is suitable as minister of finance for 82 million Germans. "He is someone who has got my trust, that's all I have to say."

In a way, her reply is much more honest than expected. In feudalism, trust determines how power is split up. Different laws apply for those who govern and those governed. A little bit of corruption and money laundry for the party can end up in jail with laws condemning his undemocratic and subversive behaviour as criminal. The German laws about the misdeeds of political parasites 'forget' penalties. Although the way the conservative party did their financing produced a scandal and lots of public outrage, none of the perpetrators needed to take responsibility in front of a regular court.

So, technically, even though Schäuble confessed his covert meeting with an infamous arms dealer, he's not a criminal. His status as politician prevented the jail term he would have received if he had done the same thing for an officially known organized crime gang. But being part of the gang that declares other gangs as 'bad' made it easy to continue as if nothing ever happened.

The criminal energy and inventiveness he had shown earlier to finance his partys affairs might come handy in his new role as minister of finance. Being reminded in public about her choice of team players, Merkel didn't seem amused, yet to me the name Rob Savelberg appeared on the horizon of real journalists.

Thanks, Rob.