When you travel with a green person, you can experience something. This is what happened to the delegation with Minister of Economic Affairs Robert Habeck traveled to China and South Korea last month. The vice chancellor traveled on a Luftwaffe plane, where food is normally served as on Lufthansa flights.
But that doesn’t apply to Habeck, who leads a vegan lifestyle. He likes to tell stories about how he saw cattle being slaughtered during a visit to a slaughterhouse. He hasn’t touched meat since. Habeck has repeatedly emphasized in interviews that he doesn’t want to tell anyone how to eat. “I don’t want consumer democracy, I want politics to create better conditions,” he also said. And Habeck creates “better” or different conditions in his direct sphere of influence: fellow passengers on the flight to China and South Korea (and back) were not given meat during their meals.
Reports from accompanying journalists said that flight attendants would no longer ask “chicken or beef?” but that guests could now choose between vegan or vegetarian dishes. There is vegetable curry, soy dumplings and cheese bread. This was all done at the behest of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, which they confirmed to the media.
German companies gave Habeck the cold shoulder
Apparently not everyone is prepared to accept the Green Minister’s limited menu and to be constantly informed about green transformation. There was a nationwide expression of interest procedure for business representatives to participate in his trip to Asia. Business representatives who wanted to travel had to have “ongoing projects that need support in the target countries”.
The aim was also to achieve a “balanced mix of both large companies and small and medium-sized companies”. But that was not the case. Large German companies gave the Minister of Economic Affairs the cold shoulder. Only one representative of a DAX company, the laboratory supplier Sartorius, was part of the delegation. Otherwise, only representatives of small and medium-sized companies were present.
There was meat on board the Chancellor’s plane
After the desired “balanced mix” in Habeck’s delegation failed to materialize, the ministry turned the tables and wrote in a press release: “Minister Habeck will be accompanied on the trip by a business delegation with a conscious focus on medium-sized companies.”
Instead of boarding a plane with the unpopular Minister of Economic Affairs, representatives of the business community apparently prefer to fly with Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD). When the head of government wanted to leave for China, representatives of the DAX companies were queuing there. Of course, meat dishes were also served on board the Chancellor’s plane.