Katherina Reiche: What she does differently than Robert Habeck

Katherina Reiche tries it with Nelson Mandela. “Remember to celebrate milestones as you prepare for the road ahead,” the minister quotes a sentence attributed to the former South African president. is attributed to.

Reiche is standing in the Oerlenbach sports hall this Friday morning. Here, in this Franconian community of 5,000 residents, the starting signal for a project of superlatives is being given today: the start of construction of the Suedlink power line in Bavaria. A milestone, so to speak, for which Germany's new Minister of Economic Affairs (CDU) has traveled from Berlin.

There's still some way to go, Reiche tells the audience – even Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) has traveled there especially. After all, construction is just getting underway. "And if you come back sometime, hopefully you won't see anything," Reiche adds.

The cables that are supposed to bring wind power from Germany's coasts to the industrially strong south are underground cables. However, the protest group that has set up in front of the sports hall isn't convinced. "Energy transition yes, Suedlink no," reads one of the posters, and their whistles can be heard all the way into the hall.

Reiche knows that the 700-kilometer project, which stretches across Germany, doesn't only have its supporters. Once the cables are laid, she argues, they will not only have made a joint contribution to the energy transition, but will also have preserved Bavaria as an industrial location. There had been strong resistance, especially in the Free State, including from the state government.

The RND newsletter from the government district. Every Thursday.

By subscribing to the newsletter I agree to the advertising agreement .

She repeatedly emphasizes the importance of considering other aspects besides the expansion of renewable energies. For example, when she points out that a new balance is needed between climate protection, the expansion of renewables, grid expansion and its costs, and the gas grids.

What resonates with her is that something was wrong with the balance before. When the 52-year-old took over the Federal Ministry of Economics in May, she praised her predecessor, Robert Habeck (Green Party), for his "almost superhuman performance" after the outbreak of the war in Ukraine and its consequences for the German economy.

But the conservative quickly made it clear that she was quite different. She said at the Industry Day that she would not hear the Green Party's phrase "The sun doesn't send a bill" from her. It was "as crazy as it is simple" and could only be thought up "if you know nothing about energy." In her first government statement, she announced that her first step would be to abolish "the ban on the operation of boilers." She later said in an interview with "Handelsblatt" that "the obligation to use heat pumps must end"—although this never happened.

And something else is different: Reiche comes directly from the private sector and was most recently managing director of the E.ON subsidiary Westenergie. With her, former Ceconomy CEO and current Digital Minister Karsten Wildberger (CDU), and start-up founder and current Construction Minister Verena Hubertz (SPD), "more entrepreneurial thinking is now entering the cabinet," praised Employers' Association President Rainer Dulger.

The number of citizens' income recipients threatens to overwhelm Germany, says Chancellor's Office Minister Thorsten Frei in an interview with RND. He sees the economic recovery at risk due to high social security contributions – at the same time, he suddenly raises doubts about the reform of the debt brake.

Born in 1973 in Luckenwalde, Reiche joined the Junge Union (Young Union) while studying chemistry, rose to become a member of the Bundestag and became part of Edmund Stoiber's election campaign team in 2002. (CSU). After serving as deputy leader of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group in the Bundestag and as state secretary, Reiche made a change in 2015: she became managing director of the Association of Municipal Enterprises (VKU).

Ten years later, Reiche, a mother of three and long-time partner of former Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg (CSU), is Minister of Economic Affairs, taking office at a time when the world's third-largest economy is undergoing radical change. She faces the daunting task of leading Germany out of recession, although—like her predecessor—she doesn't have everything in her own hands, as the tariff threats from the United States demonstrate.

The first major problem hit them when the federal government reversed its approach to the electricity tax: contrary to what was planned in the coalition agreement, it is not supposed to be passed on to citizens. "Here, so to speak, the coalition agreement meets financial possibilities and reality," the politician defended herself.

Reiche doesn't hold back her opinion. When Minister of State for Culture Wolfram Weimer proposed a digital tax for US tech companies, she immediately publicly railed against it, saying there should be fewer, not more, trade barriers. When asked on Friday about the now official closure of the Intel plant in Magdeburg, she emphasized that she had repeatedly expressed her skepticism about funding individual projects. More care should certainly have been taken in this regard.

Reiche was out of active politics for ten years. How much the world has changed since then was also evident this Friday in Lower Franconia. A few hours after the meeting in the sports hall, Reiche stood next to Helmut Rauch, Managing Director of Diehl Defence. Behind them: the Iris-T-SLM anti-aircraft missile system. After Rauch spoke, among other things, about how his defense company had grown by 60 percent in the past year, the minister took the floor.

Just a few days ago, she and her cabinet colleague Boris Pistorius (SPD) introduced a law to accelerate defense procurement. "We're procuring faster, we're procuring with less bureaucracy," she says. This applies not only to weapons systems, but also to buildings, for example, emphasizes Reiche, who points out that the Diehl site is currently being expanded. Not only does the Bundeswehr need barracks more quickly, the defense industry also needs to expand, she says. And when the topic of the law comes up, the word from the morning comes up again: milestone.

Reiche himself still has to prepare for a long road ahead for the German economy.