Playing with the power

Nico and the Navigators perform ‘Ein Volksbürger’ at the Federal Press Conference Building

The huge panoramic window in the Federal Press Conference Building offers a direct view of the government district: the Federal Chancellery, the Paul Löbe House, the German Bundestag, all within a stone's throw. Memorable press conferences have taken place here, such as the one in 2015 when Angela Merkel uttered her famous phrase, ‘We can do it!’ A little thought experiment: What would it be like if, after a landslide victory in a state election, a populist minister-president took his place on this very podium and delivered a confident speech?

This scenario was developed by Nicola Hümpel and her theatre collective Nico and the Navigators together with Maximilian Steinbeis, author and founder of the Verfassungsblog. In the role of the slick political up-and-comer: the magnificent Fabian Hinrichs, known from Volksbühne productions and as a detective in the TV series Tatort. In the style of a live mockumentary, the play begins on election night. The results from the fictional Free State flicker across a monitor: dismal ratings for the bourgeois parties, while a solid bar builds up for the ‘Democratic Alliance’. An absolute majority right off the bat! Party leader Dominik Arndt – who embodies the ‘DA’ down to his initials – rushes straight to the federal capital to face the press.

With the demeanour of a triumphant victor, Arndt, alias Hinrichs, storms into the hall. But he is not interested in dialogue. He much prefers to rant about poor mobile phone reception and emphasise: ‘We are many things, we are democratic, we are alternative, social, liberal and, yes, we are national, but that has nothing to do with right or left, with top or bottom, but with the centre, with a passion for our country.’ Hinrichs skilfully switches between the poles of likeable charlatan and hard-nosed manipulator. And that makes the ‘what if’ scenario even more disturbing. When contempt for democracy does not come in the guise of a clearly extremist party, but emanates from reactionary actors who present themselves as vaguely modern, down-to-earth do-gooders.

The play spans a year of various press conferences. And from press conference to press conference, it becomes clearer where the journey is headed. In an unnamed ‘free state,’ irregularities in immigration law arise after only a few weeks: government offices stop processing files, and those seeking protection end up homeless. Three actors and an actress, seated among the audience, probe further with journalistic questions. The communication gap is breathtaking: the populist Arndt talks a lot, but basically deflects all questions. 

A district administrator complains about the impositions of the local refugee home, and an NGO representative presents his pile of research on unprocessed asylum cases. A changing cast of characters make their appearance until it becomes clear that the federal government is dealing with something that is actually a constitutional anomaly: ‘executive disobedience’, i.e. when the executive branch disregards the judiciary and federal law is deliberately not implemented at the state level. For anyone who thinks that a minister-president disregarding high court rulings is pure fantasy, the play provides a real-life example: Markus Söder and the diesel ban. He simply ignored federal regulations from 2012 in the interests of Bavaria, the ‘car state’.

And how does the thought experiment ‘Ein Volksbürger’ end on the theatre stage? With a spectacular showdown called Article 37 of the Basic Law. Never before used in the history of the Federal Republic, the so-called ‘federal coercion’ allows drastic measures to be taken against a federal state that refuses to fulfil its federal obligations. In the case of the ‘DA’, this means that the federal police put an end to the takeover and the minister-president flees abroad. From a ‘friendly country where the lemon trees bloom’, he immediately sends a video message, naturally with the slogan ‘Something has begun that cannot be stopped’. 

In an interview after the premiere, lawyer and Verfassungsblog author Maximilian Steinbeis described the political events so vividly depicted in this theatrical experiment as uncharted territory. He is also the author of the 2019 essay ‘Ein Volkskanzler’ (A People's Chancellor), which explores how authoritarian forces could undermine the constitution within a single legislative period without openly violating it or changing a single letter. The Verfassungsblog team is currently working on the ‘Thuringia Project,’ a research project that aims to examine the resilience of democracy and the rule of law in Germany in precisely these areas.

The Thuringian AfD recently provided another prime example from the playbook of parliamentary obstruction. On 26 September, the AfD's senior member, Jürgen Treutler, blocked a vote on changing the rules of procedure for hours. Only an urgent decision by the Thuringian Constitutional Court allowed the constituent session of the state parliament to continue. The play ‘Ein Volksbürger’ (A Citizen of the People) was over after two hours. We will see how things continue on the real political stage. In Erfurt and elsewhere. 

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