The day after the election defeat, Ricarda Lang is named “Rising Star of the Year”

The analyses of the European elections had not yet been completed when the media and political elite in the German capital celebrated themselves.

The former Bavarian Prime Minister and CSU leader Edmund Stoiber, for example, was honored on Monday evening with the so-called “Politics Award” for his life’s work. The 82-year-old used the award ceremony, the day after the traffic light coalition’s defeat in the European elections, to call on Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) to ask for a vote of confidence in the Bundestag.

“For me, it’s a question of hygiene,” said Stoiber. If you emerge as Chancellor with 14 percent of the vote from a nationwide election and have “huge tasks” to deal with, then that is not enough.

Former SPD leader Franz Müntefering, who gave the laudatory speech for Stoiber, disagreed. “There is a guiding culture in our Germany, and this guiding culture is the Basic Law. And the Basic Law says nothing about hygiene,” said the 84-year-old.

Since 2003, the magazine “Politics and Communication” and the Quadriga University have been awarding the “Politics Awards” to politicians who have stood out for their “extraordinary” achievements.

The award for “Politician of the Year” went to Defense Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD). He also commented on the Union’s demands for a new election to the Bundestag. “Why should we vote again?” he asked. “The Bundestag election was in 2021 and the next one will be in 25. Just because you lose other elections in the meantime, you don’t lose your legitimacy.”

Several hundred politicians, journalists and representatives of companies and institutions attended the award ceremony in Berlin, which was moderated by journalist Alev Dogan and journalist Hajo Schumacher. Green Party leader Ricarda Lang was named “Rising Star of the Year” shortly after her party suffered a slump of 8.6 percent to 11.6 percent of the vote in the European elections.

An honorary award went to the 102-year-old Holocaust survivor Margot Friedländer. “Her lifelong commitment to the culture of remembrance and against all forms of racism and anti-Semitism, as well as her advocacy for the reconciliation of Jews and non-Jewish Germans, make her a role model for all of us,” said the jury, which consists of 24 people from different areas of society, in its statement.