Very Special Advisor, “Second Brain”, say some, the personality, and even more the scope of action of Jörg Kukies justify all the superlatives. He is the man who will count in Berlin’s European policy, and in particular in the Franco-German couple that the Parisian lunch on Wednesday, October 26 was intended to awaken. In addition to Europe, which is department five in the Chancellery, he also manages department four: economic issues. Usually they are two different people. And to make sure he doesn’t get bored: since Germany is presiding over the G7 and the G20 this year: he is also Olaf Schölz’s sherpa, in particular to prepare for the G20 in Bali in a month.
The man has nothing of the old road of ministerial cabinets or politics. Geographically he comes like Olaf Scholz and two other current ministers from Rhineland Palatinate, a rural region a little below Bonn, a very European region. He was born precisely in Mainz 54 years ago from an engineer father at IBM. Mainz which is the German laboratory of the tripartite coalitions Social Democrats/Ecolo/Liberals like the one in place in Berlin. He knows it by heart. Even without a political career, he has always had his heart in the SPD, where he is an activist, student, like his two parents, before flying off to investment banking! Studies in Mainz, Paris, Harvard, before a doctorate in economics in Chicago, and here he goes directly to Goldman Sachs where he spent his entire career, until co-chairing the management board.
The switch to politics starts one evening, at the stadium, the investment banker is crazy about football, but in this case it’s a basketball game. Jörg Kukies talks to a regional SPD official who is surprised that German managers are not more involved in politics. “They just have to ask us! replies the investment banker, but they never do.” This line goes all the way back to Olaf Schölz’s ears. Three months later, the 30-minute meeting actually lasts two hours and turns into the great debate on the future of the euro zone. Olaf Schölz, who then took up his duties as Minister of Finance, took him on board. He finds himself Secretary of State in charge of financial markets and Europe.
Recruitment is making teeth cringe on the left, where there are fears of conflicts of interest. His ministry is also at the heart of a big scandal around the bankruptcy of Wirecard, the online payment specialist. But the Covid crisis will help silence the critics. Jörg Kukies is maneuvering to develop what has been called the “Bazooka” plan to support the German economy. Fast, ambitious, it saves Lufthansa in particular. Above all, he will gain real political weight by taking on Germany, which has been so cautious in the past, in this Joint Loan, totally unprecedented in Europe: 750 billion euros, for the recovery plan. Along the way, Olaf Schölz himself earned his stripes as future chancellor. Olaf Schölz trusts Jörg Kukies so much that he sometimes lets him sit in his place.