I have an interview with Bärbel Bas seen about her career. The SPD party leader is often praised as being particularly down-to-earth. Her father is a truck driver, her mother is a housewife, and she comes from the Ruhr region. I now believe that this is mentioned all the time because we want to forestall possible criticism.

The Bas story went like this: After school she wanted to become a technical draftsman. She wrote over 80 applications but was rejected everywhere because she was a woman. We don’t have women’s toilets, I said in the rejections.

So a difficult childhood in Duisburg plus discrimination as a woman. No wonder that she got 95 percent in the election for party leader, 30 percent more than poor Lars Klingbeil, who unfortunately only had a childhood in Munster, Lower Saxony.

What should we think of the SPD?

Unfortunately, almost nothing about the story is true. The Workplace Ordinance, which requires separate toilet rooms for companies with more than five employees of different genders, has been in place since 1983. Smaller companies are obliged to ensure separate use at different times. And not even in the 1980s were employers stupid enough to cite gender as the reason for a rejection. That would have been a cause of action even back then.

If Ms. Bas was denied a training position as a technical draftsman, it was probably due to the grades of her advanced secondary school leaving certificate. But that would be a story that would not be successful at any party conference, not even with the SPD.

What should we make of a party that has a woman at the helm who bends reality? Normally you would say: Maybe you should talk to her, we don’t live in America. But in the SPD this is a basic requirement for getting to the top. The shifted worldview as a basis for applications: This is the SPD of today.

The weekend before last, the SPD had a closed meeting at its party headquarters. 400 officials came to discuss the future course. The party leader was also there. First she recommended Rwanda, one of the most authoritarian countries in the world, as a role model because there is now a quota for women there. She then called for the defense of the welfare state. The existence of the welfare state is at risk, she said.

It’s a joke

Has Ms. Bas ever looked at the welfare state quota? After all, she is the Minister of Labor and Social Affairs, so you should get the numbers quickly. Things have been going uphill for 40 years. The welfare state is about to end? It has become thicker and thicker, so thick that it is almost bursting.

If you ask me, it turns into a shoe the other way around. If the poverty rate continues to rise even though we are spending more and more on social welfare, why don’t we try it the other way around for a change? So less welfare state and more money for the individual. Who knows, maybe we’ll read that the number of people who are considered at risk of poverty is suddenly falling.

It’s a joke. We are spending more and more money to fight poverty, but the number of people in need is constantly increasing. The Federal Statistical Office announced three weeks ago that one in six people is at risk of poverty. I know Ms. Bas’s answer: even more money into the system! I guarantee you that if we spent 100 percent on the welfare state, not one in six people would be at risk of poverty, but one in two. What would Ms. Bas say then? Presumably that we now also needed 100 percent taxes.

I am in favor of making politics concrete

The minister was recently with the employers. It was then said that the men laughed at her. But that’s not true. I looked at the crucial passage. Some people couldn’t help but laugh because Ms. Bas said such funny things that they just couldn’t contain themselves. For example, she said that the pension increase would not be paid for by contributors, but by taxpayers, and that was a good thing. Unfortunately, there were a lot of people in the audience who knew something about economics. Hence the laughs.

She then threatened the employers that she would now view them as enemies. It’s not possible to laugh, explained SPD parliamentary group leader Matthias Miersch. Maybe we need a law against basphemy: Anyone who makes fun of people in political life, especially if they belong to the SPD, will be punished with imprisonment for not less than two years.

Where does this crazy sensitivity come from? I thought anyone who grew up in Duisburg wouldn’t be shaken so quickly. One of the advantages of a childhood in the Scherbenviertel: you’ve already seen it all. But puff cake. Saskia Esken at least had a sense of humor in her own way. Bas is the combination of a bad mood plus a sense of entitlement.

I am in favor of making politics concrete. What would the welfare state look like if the SPD could prevail with all ideas? Let’s look at Bremen and Rhineland-Palatinate, two federal states that have been ruled by social democrats since time immemorial. You should be able to see it, right? The SPD has been in power in Bremen for 80 years and in Rhineland-Palatinate for 35 years.

“You were always there for me,” writes the boss to the State Council

A big issue at the moment is the right to work part-time. It would be interesting to know how this is regulated in your model countries. Let’s take Bremen. A state councilor decides that he no longer wants to work.

He became a father again at an advanced age, and when weighing up his career and family, he chose the family. Commendable. If it weren’t for the salary waiver, that would of course be unpleasant. So he asks his senator to put him into temporary retirement. Since the two have an excellent relationship, she complies with his request without any hassle.

However, this is not how political officials are put into temporary retirement. The remedy is actually intended for the event that an official is no longer considered acceptable or is politically undesirable. But we are in Bremen. “You were always there for me,” his boss wrote to our state councilor as he said goodbye.

Let’s look a little further south. A state secretary decides to change jobs. A state-owned company made him a lucrative offer. Manager salaries instead of state secretary salaries, that sounds tempting. It’s just a shame that pension entitlements don’t increase further when you switch to business.

A great reason to join the SPD

So why not combine the best of both worlds, the manager’s salary and the secretary of state’s pension? No sooner said than done. Because you own the state, so to speak, you make the impossible possible. The State Secretary is sent on special leave so that the pension continues.

The exemption from the state treasury has now lasted for twelve years. And because we are with the SPD, this is not a one-time thing, but rather common practice. In Bremen we are talking about a total of five cases, and in Rhineland-Palatinate there are at least two.

Have I already mentioned that the generous part-time arrangements unfortunately only apply if you are close to the party? A great reason to join the SPD. We are facing difficult times. Who knows what this is good for again.