Guttenberg is moving freely and talking to his supporters without any body guards.
Bonn, Germany: It is a sunny afternoon. People of all ages are roaming around the Bonn city center. Temporary beer bars are full of them. It seems like a summer party, no visible security. I am confused, is this really an election campaign spot?
The tiny stage for the election campaign of Mr. Dürig is at the center of Bonn. Thousands of people are there to enjoy the campaign. Unlike many politicians, Mr. Guttenberg, who is a member of CDU’s sister party CSU (Christian Social Union), started his speech without having any paper with him. People start clapping immediately after the beginning of his speech.
Beer bar at campaign spot
Guttenberg has become very popular within a few months. He got the position of economic and technology minister in February at a time when the world was facing its worst economic crisis. His efforts to save Opel and few other activities made him one of the most popular politicians in Germany. As Guttenberg says, “We have a special responsibility in this time of economic crisis as we had to spend billions of Euros.”
Guttenberg calls for more modesty in the election campaign. He says politicians should not make empty promises. “People expect us to do our task until the last day in office.”
“May be it sounds strange from someone like me who has established his political career in such a short time, but politicians need to be down to earth”, Guttenberg continued.
37 year old Guttenberg adds “Politics means that you should not work for your own career only but as a service to people.”
What makes Guttenberg very popular? I put this question to Katharina Beckmann, a 21 year old German girl present at the campaign. Katharina replied, “Because I think he is a very good politician and I support the CDU. I wish they will win the elections in September.’’
Young Katharina is a new voter and planning to vote in the upcoming elections. She was sitting very close to the stage while Guttenberg delivered his speech. Katharina went to Guttenberg when he was leaving the stage and requested for an autograph. Guttenberg kept smiling and gave an autograph to Katharina. There were dozens of people waiting for his autograph. German economics minister tried his best to accommodate them. He was moving freely and talking to his supporters without any body guards.
Katharina with the autograph from Guttenberg
“I think it is very important to support the new inventions in German economy. And this is what he wants to do with the support of his party’’, Kathrina commented after getting the autograph.
30 year old banker, Mr. Jürgen Stein was listening to Guttenberg from a distance. I asked him about the speech. He said, “It was a great speech and until now he seems to be quite a nice guy. I think he introduced a new way of thinking in politics in Germany. So I guess he will make his way.’’
Did you get anything new from his speech? Mr. Jürgen replied, “there is nothing new but he once again pointed out his point of views. For example he said insolvency is a possibility to rearrange an organization. It’s not the worst case. I know it because I have shares of a company that went into insolvency and came out. Now it’s a proper company.
Germans sometimes notice very small things. Like Mr. Guttenberg delivered his 30 minutes speech without having a paper on his hand and that impressed this young lady so much. She was listening to Mr. Guttenberg with a glass of beer in her hand to cope with hot summer afternoon. Bärbel said, “Christian Dürig had a paper and he continued reading it for three minutes. But Mr. Guttenberg could speak without any paper. That is very good.”
“He did not tell us special points of party politics, but very much what many people want to listen,” Bärbel pointed about Guttenberg.
Guttenberg is from an old aristocratic family in Bavaria, which is in the southeast of Germany. His wife is also a Countess of Bismarck. Guttenberg was a freelance journalist in the early days of his career. He worked for the conservative daily “Die Welt”. After that he became the CEO of family company Guttenberg GmbH. In 2002, Guttenberg started his political career as the representative of Kulmbach in the German Bundestag (Lower House of Parliament). He is one of the influential young politicians in Germany.
- Arafatul Islam, Bonn (18.08.09)
