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BERLIN — As German Chancellor Olaf Scholz sat in a crisis meeting Tuesday afternoon, 600 guests of the Social Democratic Party were on their way to a boat laden with asparagus during spargelzeit, or asparagus season, worried there would be little to celebrate that night if the meeting did not end well.
Meanwhile, Scholz, Liberal Finance Minister Christian Lindner and Green Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck convened to find a resolution to the building energy law, which had led to deep strife in the three-party coalition for weeks.
The Greens wanted to ban the installation of gas heating as early as the beginning of 2024 while the Liberals fought for less strict rules. All avenues of discussion had failed to that point, so the three coalition leaders had to settle it once and for all on Tuesday before the summer recess.
And they did, to the delight of 150 SPD lawmakers and hundreds of other guests of the Seeheimer Kreis — the influential conservative wing of the SPD parliamentary group — which has planned the boat trip since the 1960s during Germany’s popular asparagus season.
“We have made it possible for this Spargelfahrt to take place without delay,” Lindner joked Tuesday evening aboard the three-story ship “Havel Queen,” the venue for the asparagus trip for lawmakers, lobbyists and journalists at Berlin’s Wannsee.
The Spargelfahrt is both famous and infamous. Companies pay up to €10,000 for a sponsorship and several tickets to be on a boat with Germany’s political elite, as reports last year showed. Government members, on the other hand, often avoid being trapped on board for three hours with hundreds of lawmakers, journalists and lobbyists, and therefore disappear before the vessel leaves the dock.
At one point, some worried that star guests Scholz and Lindner would remain stuck in crisis talks and not even be able to attend.
But the crisis was averted and the top brass boarded to enjoy the meal — white asparagus with schnitzel, potatoes and hollandaise sauce.
During a dinner speech, Lindner took a collegial swipe at his Green coalition partners: “The difference between me and the Greens is that they’ve been working on their heat pump in their headquarters for three years, while mine is already running at home,” referring to a report that the Green Party has problems installing a heat pump in its own headquarters. The social democratic audience laughed loudly.
Comparisons of asparagus and politics by the speaker followed. Green asparagus, of course, did not come off well.
The Green minister of agriculture, Cem Özdemir, who was also present, countered: “I want every form of asparagus, because I am in favor of technological openness,” which was received with loud laughter. (Technological openness is an FDP priority in various German debates.)
Scholz, however, avoided jabbing at any people — or asparagus.
He summed up his version of the recent coalition dispute: “It jolted a bit. Today it has jerked to a close.”
After their speeches, Scholz, Lindner and Özdemir left the boat, as expected, before it set off.
Then the “Havel Queen” cast off into the sunset followed by a police boat since two federal ministers, Defense Minister Boris Pistorius and Labor Minister Hubertus Heil, were on board.
Wine and beer flowed as the topics ranged from high politics to shallow gossip: Chatter about Defense Minister Pistorius (who has to take selfies all the time), the asparagus (it was too hard, as it was every year) and the early departure of the coalition leaders (a food industry lobbyist was disappointed that he didn’t have the chance to speak with the agriculture minister).
At 10 p.m., the ship docked. Several guests went home but for some politicians it was back to the Bundestag in busses. Though not to the office, this time, but to the pub next door.
