An this point one has to praise the traffic light coalition: Their leading representatives are pretty fit guys. Admittedly, not as wiry as Chancellor Scholz through the government bench, who also teases his own bodyguard with his cross-country skis. But the two disputers Habeck (business and jogging) and Lindner (finance, jogging and rowing machine at home) are also well trained.
There is no lack of talent in the cabinet who can master more demanding sports; just think of Baerbock (outside, formerly trampolining) and Lauterbach (health and table tennis). One can rightly criticize the reduced decision-making speed of the Scholz cabinet in times of war and the energy crisis. But at the same time, Germany has what is probably the sportiest government since Chancellor Schröder (once a center forward for TuS Talle, known as “Acker”) and Foreign Minister Fischer (“My long run to myself”) were bursting with power.
The German citizen can even be proud of his traffic light coalition when he looks at the physical exercises of foreign heads of government from then and now. Donald Trump: cheats at golf and holds tennis racket like a frying pan. Joe Biden: has a decent golf swing but, alas, the frail body. Boris Johnson: uses his stature awkwardly, be it in his jogging-like locomotion or playing rugby with children. Vladimir Putin: disqualified himself as a judoka, ice hockey player and statesman for all eternity.
Presidents Do “Sports”
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Donald Trump and the Frying Pan
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is not infinitely distant from the autocrat Putin, is also doing it. His ping-pong partner, the almost 70-year-old Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, makes a good face about the fake game.
The effect of such an Erdogan photo is fatal: How can a politician get something going if he can’t even handle a ping-pong racket properly? It’s better to just show what you can do in sport. The German traffic light men (and women) understood better how to present themselves.
