Should TV Stars do Politics?
Perhaps my English upbringing is to blame, but there is surely something sexy about the Super Nanny Katharina Saalfrank. The combination of discipline, will power and black dresses; I must ask my friend Max Mosley about this. So, of course, I initially thought it was a brilliant idea of the SPD to put her on the election trail to demonstrate to Germans: our children can do better. Tactically, it is an attempt to neutralise Ursula von der Leyen. Super Nanny versus Super-Mutti.
The problem is that there is no limit to this kind of election strategy. If the only way to attract the attention of voters is to engage TV stars then why not go the whole way and make Günther Jauch minister for education and sport, Dieter Bohlen Kanzleramtsminister, put Michael Schuhmacher at Transport and Kommissar Rex as Innenminister (one woof: stricter citizenship tests; two woofs: quicker deportation of illegal immigrants)?
The political class is exhausted. Once upon a time it tried to re-invigorate itself by hiring businessmen (remember how Gerhard Schröder made a businessman minister for innovation? The man was so terrified by his brief brush with government bureaucracy, he resigned a few weeks later), Nowadays politicians prefer not to be photographed with managers – both sides have been compromised by the financial crisis. So naturally they turn to television for their Frischzellenkur. Other professions have long ago realised that TV is shaping popular expectations. Every village in the country wants to know why the local doctor doesn’t visit them at home – like the Landärztin, alias Christine Neubauer. And policemen are irritated by people who think that serious crimes can be solved in 45 minutes a la Tatort.
This confusion between the real world (which involves complex choices with limited time and money) and the virtual world of cinema and television is not just a German phenomenon. A new book about the mafia by Roberto Saviano describes how real-life Mafiosi began to change their style of dressing and even their jargon after watching the Godfather films. And last week I spent a day with the talented Börsenanalyst Dirk Müller: he told me that he had been useless at maths in school but was inspired to go into the financial business after watching Michael Douglas in “Wall Street”.
Life imitates art but politicians, in particular, should be careful not to look ridiculous. David Cameron, the British conservative leader who will probably become prime minister in the next 10 months, already has plans to knock together some of the houses in London’s Downing Street. The aim: to create a kind of White House West Wing. Not a simulacrum of the real White House but rather a copy of the television series West Wing in which highly intelligent advisers can be seen walking and talking fast down long corridors in an attempt to save the world. The British politician hopes that some American stardust will descend on him. Tony Blair had a similar fantasy. His chief of staff Jonathan Powell invited the actor who played the chief of staff in “West Wing” for talks in London, to compare notes. And the actor who plays an election campaign strategist in “West Wing” was recently flown to London to talk to a Conservative think tank about how to win votes.
These people are just actors: they follow a script. It is a bit like the German Federation of Butchers and Fleischverarbeitung asking Thomas Kretschmann to deliver a speech, on the grounds that he played the Cannibal of Rotenburg. That has not happened yet, I am relieved to report, but Germany seems to be following Britain and the US in taking the virtual world of television too seriously. I like Katharina Saalfrank, and especially approve of the way that she sends disobedient children on to the “Stille Treppe” – the perfect place, surely, for Oskar L. – but the SPD should not use her in the election campaign. German politicians should not need to borrow credibility; they simply have to find a language that enthrals their audience and construct policies that are more exciting than Gute Zeiten, Schlechte Zeiten. This should not be so difficult. It is true that the US Americans elected actors to be President (Ronald Reagan, star of “Kings Row”) and the governor of California (Arnie Schwarzenegger alias the Terminator). But the best that Germany has come up with so far is the embarrassing Peter Sodann (Kommissar Ehrlicher) and I think that demonstrates my point: German actors should concentrate on winning Oscars, or at least Quoten; politicians should start winning back our trust.
