Germany chooses its Bundestag – and thus the direction in sports policy. Is a sports minister coming? And does the sport shoot an own goal here?
Sport, and this is not a surprise in view of the world and federal political situation, only plays a supporting role in the election campaign before the Bundestag election on February 23. The need for determined sports policy action is high: Olympic acquisition, dilapidated spores, less international success – there is a lot to do.
The result crisis in German top-class sport made the headlines at the end of January when CDU candidate for chancellor Friedrich Merz, with a view to the poor performance at the 2024 Olympics in Paris, asked to reintroduce federal youth games with winning certificates at all schools.
Merz is poorly informed
If the solution were so simple, politics and sport could have saved years of work to get top sport through more efficient funding. Of course it is not so easy and Merz ‘advance was extremely thin and even misleading.
Winner certificates at federal youth games have just been abolished as little as the scoring shooting at football games in E and F youth, as Merz also trumpeted. Nevertheless, the Unioner could be sure to get hunting applause for his regulars’ table slogans – welcome to the 2025 election campaign.
Sports billion for infrastructure
The election program of the CDU/CSU has very interesting things to offer in terms of sports: a yes to the application for summer games, more support for volunteering, money for the renovation of the sports facilities. All of this unites the Union in principle with SPD, Greens and FDP. But it also becomes concrete.
The Union wants to reduce bureaucracy in volunteering, clarify liability issues and noticeably increase the exercise and volunteer flat rates. At the sports facilities, she promises a “sports billion”, which the Greens are now doing: one billion euros a year from the federal government for a better sports infrastrukur. And the CDU/CSU wants half an hour of sport per day for primary school children – education policy is a matter of the country.
Union wants to bring sport to the Chancellery
A unique feature of the Union is her plan to bring the sport to the Chancellery with a Minister of State for Sport and Voluntary. The idea is not new and goes in the direction of how it is handled in North Rhine-Westphalia or Thuringia. But is the idea good too?
“This is difficult to assess at the moment, because it is unclear what area of tasks this state secretary is responsible for” Says Professor Lutz Thieme, sports wisser at the Koblenz University of Applied Sciences, in sportsinside-Podcast.
Lutz Thieme, sports scientist at the Koblenz University of Applied Sciences
“If it only means that the current sports department changes from the Federal Ministry of the Interior to the Chancellery, then on the one hand you are closer to the power of politics, but on the other hand you lose the support of this large house of Federal Ministry of the Interior.”
How strong would a Federal Minister of Sports be?
It would also be conceivable that sports topics from other ministries would be merged in the Chancellery- for example from the Ministry of Building, Health and Defense. “This would result in a completely different central function, which then introduces the sport very close to the political power of power”, says Thieme.
It is also the express wish of the German Olympic Sports Association (DOSB) to locate the sport in the Chancellery. The calculation should be to be able to lobby better there with short distances to the head of government – and ideally a sports -loving minister who is open to the interests of the sports associations.
More state influence on top sport?
However, such a player could also have disadvantages for the DOSB – for example, with the claim to continue to help shape the top sports funding. So far, the DOSB has been doing this by deciding on the use of the grants for the top associations together with the BMI. And he would like to continue to have a say if the planned agency for top sport will regulate the funding in the future.
This agency is a central part of the Sports Funding Act, which, according to which no majority has found from the traffic light government in the Bundestag, but (at some point) should be tackled again after the new election. The voice shares in the important board of trustees of the agency are a large chimney apple between politics and sport.
Dispute over the influence in the agency
The DOSB has sharply criticized the fact that the BMI had secured the last word in the draft law, i.e. the sovereignty about the fundamental orientation of the agency. As so often, the autonomy of sport is requested and referred to the larger expertise in your own ranks. The BMI, on the other hand, has the Federal Audit Office in the neck, which expressly demands that politics decide on the use of tax money – and not a representative of interests like the DOSB.
According to the failure of the draft law in the Bundestag, organized sport may hope that the plans will be further developed in its sense. But that could be more difficult with a strong man or a strong woman for sport in Berlin.
The sport has to stand in the back
“Someone who is in the Chancellery in the range of a state secretary I would assume that he or she would of course also want to have a significant contribution to decisions for sport”, says Thieme. This also applies to the planned top -class agency.
The organized sport looks excited towards Berlin, certainly even after the election. Patience is required, not only because of the political situation, but also because of the clammy state coffers. Sport will probably also have to be satisfied with a supporting role in the coalition negotiations.