Beide Daumen hoch nach dem Zieleinlauf: Frank Ullrich verabschiedete den Bundestags-Sportausschuss in die Festtage, wie es seine Art ist, freundlich und jovial. Ein bisschen wirkte es, als wehte ein Hauch von Wintersport aus dem fernen Oberhof in das gerade in jeder Hinsicht triste Berlin.
Gut möglich, dass es auch über den Jahreswechsel hinaus ein doppelter Abschied war: der vom Sportausschuss in dieser Legislatur und dann auch von Ullrich, dem früheren DDR-Weltklassebiathleten, der spät noch in eine bundesdeutsche Politikkarriere eingestiegen ist und ob seines Siegs gegen den CDU-Rechts-außen Hans-Georg Maaßen von der SPD mit dem Posten des Sportausschuss-Vorsitzenden bedacht worden war.
Allerdings endete die 63. Sitzung am Mittwochnachmittag nicht nur mit freundlichen Worten, sondern auch mit einer verpassten Chance – und damit in gewisser Weise sinnbildlich für die drei Ausschussjahre unter Ullrich.
Among other things, the agenda included information from the Federal Commissioner for the Victims of the SED Dictatorship, Evelyn Zupke, about the reports collected from the past three years. A good opportunity to give another impetus on another matter: the SED Injustice Settlement Act and the question of whether doping victims should also be granted a (small) pension.
Kind regards to the printed matter
In the final traffic light weeks, which are sometimes difficult to predict, a door could even open for this: the FDP, which is in charge and is blocking this issue, is no longer on board, and the Union is also showing up alongside the SPD and the Greens – at least that’s how it was before the traffic lights went out listen – with good will. A signal could be sent with a few pointed contributions in a debate, ideally in the presence of Ms. Zupke herself. But the representatives in the committee decided not to do so: friendly acknowledgment of the printed matter, nothing more. Was that the Christmas peace that shouldn’t be disturbed too much?
Some people may have remembered how Evelyn Zupke had put Chairman Ullrich in trouble on another occasion with the – always well-founded – request to please do more on his own behalf: in clearing up the past GDR doping system. But Ullrich didn’t want to comply with that. Now he is retiring for family and age reasons.
This creates an opportunity for the Sports Committee and thus for sports policy as a whole after the federal election in February. A prerequisite for this is that the committee continues to meet publicly – one of the right decisions under Ullrich. Another is that it does not see itself primarily as a committee for medal production, as one might have sometimes thought recently. It is impossible to understand how such achievements can be achieved in the future without knowing what price has sometimes been paid for them in the past.
