Horst Schlämmer, deputy editor-in-chief of the Grevenbroicher Tagblatt newspaper, is a bumbling and unpleasant character who accidentally poisons his boss. As a result, he interviews various politicians on his behalf during an ongoing election campaign. When he realises that they are all ‘just ordinary people’, he decides to go into politics himself and become Chancellor. Since no party wants him, he founds his own Horst Schlämmer Party (HSP) – which he describes as ‘liberal, conservative and left-wing’. Under the slogan ‘Yes Weekend’, borrowed from Barack Obama, he laboriously campaigns for support.