Last week, Oettinger participated in  a debate about the controversial rail project “Stuttgart 21″ – a multi-billion euro project that he supported while being PM in Baden-Württemberg. The latest revelations even showed that  Oettinger  made sure that the public and the parliament were not informed about significant price increases of  “Stuttgart 21″! (If you live in Baden-Württemberg make sure you vote in the referendum today to stop the project!)

Anyway during the aforementioned debate Oettinger said the following in German (while keeping a straight face!):

“Sie sagen, alle(s) seien Kopfbahnhöfe. Stimmt doch gar nicht! Strasbourg – Durchgangsbahnhof. Karlsruhe – Durchgangsbahnhof. Es stimmt, Paris ist ein Kopfbahnhof. Gare de l’Est. Warum? Weil es westlich von Paris keine Menschen mehr gibt, sondern (nur) Kühe und Atlantik. – Stuttgart, aber Stuttgart ist  mittendrin.”

In English:

“You say there are terminus stations everywhere. That is not correct! Strasbourg – through station, Karlsruhe – through station. It is true, there is terminus station in Paris. Gare de l’Est. Why?  Because west of Paris there are no people, only cows and the atlantic. Stuttgart however, is  right in the middle.”

His remarks not only inspired a car rental company to advertise trips to Bretagne and comedians teaching geography lessons, it also calls into question Oettinger’s professional values and diplomatic abilities.  As a EU Commissioner it is not acceptable to ridicule certain EU regions (Bretagne, Normandy) or even countries (Great Britain, Ireland are also west of Paris). And his limited understanding of French geography  is also not acceptable for a German Commissioner.

So who is Günther Oettinger? He is Ministerpräsident (CDU) of Baden-Württemberg and a somewhat diffult ally of Angela Merkel (he often criticized her as he wanted to “sharpen his profile in Berlin”, there are also rumours of him being part of the Anti-Merkel Andenpakt).

Officially he was chosen because of his expertise in economic affairs which is a clear signal of Merkel that he should get a prominent single market related portfolio in the next Commission. One could also come to the conclusion that Merkel wanted to get rid of him… Although I do not think he would have been a serious problem for Merkel… he has become quite unpopular in BW and is perceived as a pretty weak  Ministerpräsident! – so it is rather a good exit strategy for him!

I think Chancellor Merkel could have picked a better candidate! Oettinger is a local politician – he  has never had a position on the national level. His career is focused on Baden-Württemberg only – admittedly one of the best performers among the German Länder. However, the economic crisis has had a huge impact and Oettinger was heavily criticized about his abilities to manage the crisis.  And he totally lacks any European or international experience and I don’t know anything about his language skills. Actually he is much more a bureaucrat than a politician which again might be helpful in the Commission.

If you are interested in Günther Oettingers EU credentials you might want to check the Baden Württemberg – EU website here. Unfortunately he is not the best public speaker, so he won’t be a Commissioner that will engage actively with the public and make the case for EU policy. However, chancellor Merkel will make sure that  the EU commission will not act against the German government and she also underlines her role in EU politics – and ultimately that of the European Council and her direct connection to Barosso – without the interference of a German commissioner.

Günther Oettinger stands for the status quo – ‘no experiments’ plus solid bureaucratic work. Unfortunately that might also be an indicator for the EU attitude of the new German government. So I doubt whether we will see important German EU initiatives in the next years.

A notable scandal included Günther Oettinger defending Hans Filbinger Nazi past. The “eulogy controversy” sparked quite a debate within Germany. Some in Brussels might remember this photo which was taken during a party (in Brussels) in which Oettinger obviously had a good time:

Afterwards he said he was behaving normally and he does not intend to change. He actually had a couple of scandals involving a lot of beer and right wing songs… so watch out Brussels!

I actually come from the same region (even same city!) as Oettinger  so I have followed his career in the last years…so I might write some more about him in the future. Generally, I think people in the region will be quite happy to get rid of him. He is known to be a fast talker which often makes it very hard to understand him (even if you are a German native speaker – and even if you speak a dialect called Swabian!) One example: