There can be no talk of Easter calm in the traffic light coalition. The Ukraine war forces us to stick together, but on the other hand there is a mighty crunch. But one is stubbornly silent. “The problem lies in the chancellery,” says Anton Hofreiter, a Green Party politician.
The opportunities to find out from Olaf Scholz why so little is heard from him and why he ignores the many calls for leadership are few and far between. If the Chancellor then speaks out, quite a few think: If only he had kept silent. In a crisis situation like the current one, many thought they knew what leadership was, “(…) I have to say to some of these boys and girls: Because I don’t do what you want, that’s why I lead.”
You don’t have to be a Twitter troll to go nuts over those words. Even the choice of words seems disrespectful and arrogant. Whatever the Chancellor understands by leadership and whatever strings he pulls behind the scenes, his way of leading is obviously not understood. Not from the opposition anyway. Not even by many voters and not by large parts of his coalition. Not from the EU and certainly not from the Ukrainian government. As is well known, she wants more determined support from the largest EU economy in defending the country against Russian aggression. But: Germany is there as a “brakeman”, says not only the group leader of the European People’s Party (EPP) in the European Parliament, the CSU man Manfred Weber.
Olaf Scholz: procrastinate, hesitate, be silent
Hesitation, hesitation and, above all, silence – it is this mixture that is currently discrediting the chancellor. He himself denies that. But even Scholz’s predecessor, Angela Merkel, was often accused of holding back in situations in which heads of government and heads of state were supposed to show themselves to the population and demonstrate leadership. The SPD man, who served as Merkel’s vice chancellor for years, seems to want to perfect this practice. The Ukrainian President Selenskyj addresses him directly in a video message in the Bundestag. Scholz is silent. The Federal President is not wanted in Kyiv – a diplomatic affront despite the turmoil of war. Scholz is “irritated” and is otherwise silent. Whether arms deliveries, Russia’s exclusion from the Swift system or the stop for the Nord Stream 2 pipeline – it always seemed as if Scholz (and with him the federal government) could only make a decision when the pressure from outside became so big that there was no other way. The debate about arms deliveries also largely went in circles over Easter – despite the release of another billion euros in aid for Ukraine.
An important part of the coalition obviously does not want to continue in this form. “It needs a lot more leadership,” criticized Green politician Anton Hofreiter frankly after a trip to Kyiv with FDP and SPD colleagues and even attacked Scholz directly on “RTL Direkt”: “The problem is in the Chancellery.” Sentences that normally make a coalition crisis perfect. But Scholz is also silent on this. Instead, his deputy Robert Habeck (Greens) showed the leadership quality that many would like from the Chancellor. He caught his party colleague by calling for cohesion with some justification – and thus also placed himself in front of Scholz: “In times like these, it is extremely important that Germany does not allow itself to be divided.” When it comes to arms deliveries to Ukraine, however, the two Greens are not that far apart. And her party friend, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, is even crystal clear in her call for heavy weapons to be made available to Ukraine.
Coalition: Habeck and Baerbock the strong figures
Baerbock and Habeck are currently the strongest figures in the cabinet – and accordingly the two “most popular politicians” in the relevant rankings. Before Scholz. The Foreign Minister initially had to settle into her new office under extremely difficult circumstances, but is moving more and more confidently on the international stage – and keeps the country’s reputation high. In any case, her Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kubela recently praised the minister that no one would hear anything bad about her from him, no matter how dissatisfied one was with other members of the German government.
Meanwhile, Habeck impresses with public explanations that would be good for the chancellor. For example, that going to Qatar was “bitter” but necessary in order to get rid of Russian gas supplies. The fact that the German delegation – contrary to what an agency photo suggests, which shows a deep servant of Habeck in front of the Emir – appeared quite self-confident and also made demands for the observance of human rights. That an immediate gas embargo would hit the German economy and society so hard that it could hardly be sustained. And that even Ukraine could suffer from this, among other things because the country was connected to the European power grid at the beginning of the war and a lack of gas could interrupt this supply of electricity.
“Great need to be taken seriously”
“I think that this is certainly (…) a reason for Habeck’s success and popularity: that he doesn’t cover up his own inner conflict, but instead displays it demonstratively”. Things look different for Baerbock than for the Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate. She presents herself as a power politician, says Müller. “The war situation may even allow Baerbock to act resolutely, sometimes even undiplomatically, which would not be possible under other conditions (…). This is also likely to be a reason for her approval.”
The clear attitude of the two is not only well received by their own clientele. “Beyond the green milieu, there is a great need to be taken seriously,” Müller continued. It is possible that many politicians have become too firmly established that one should rather not expect unpleasant truths from the voters. “These weeks have shown, however, that addressing very specific risks is by no means badly received.”
Do not procrastinate only in questions of war
A realization that Olaf Scholz obviously does not want to follow (yet). , the chancellor was once certified even before the beginning of the war. The point is not that Scholz should push himself and blindly push Germany to participate in the war. On the contrary, the Chancellor’s all-too-loud silence gives the diverse debates, speculations and accusations the space they are now occupying. And who, in addition to the chancellor himself, do not make the coalition look good either.
Just think of the refusal to submit a government bill on vaccination, the introduction of which promptly failed. When the corona measures were relaxed, Scholz recently left his party colleague and Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach visibly in the rain in a struggle with coalition partner FDP. And the hesitant attitude towards Nord Stream 2 (“not a political project”), arms deliveries and (initially) a clear demarcation from Russia kept alive the memory of the pro-Russian policy of the Social Democrats, which later turned out to be wrong. It is possible that Scholz even played his part in the fact that Ukrainian President Zelenskyj declared Federal President Steinmeier, a Social Democrat and co-architect of the Minsk Agreement on the annexation of Crimea and Donbass, to be an undesirable person. In any case, he has his share of the worse standing among the EU partners. “We are currently losing a lot of respect from all of our neighbors,” says Anton Hofreiter, who is also chairman of the European Affairs Committee in the Bundestag.
“Whoever orders guidance …”
“Whoever orders a tour will get it.” This sentence from the election campaign sticks to Olaf Scholz like a burr. In these times, good leadership also includes good communication – with political partners and opponents as well as with the population. Doubts are growing that he is able and willing to do this. Scholz is doing what he has always done: he is silent about it.
Sources used: ; ; ; News agencies DPA and AFP
Source: Stern
David William is a talented author who has made a name for himself in the world of writing. He is a professional author who writes on a wide range of topics, from general interest to opinion news. David is currently working as a writer at 24 hours worlds where he brings his unique perspective and in-depth research to his articles, making them both informative and engaging.
