Olaf Scholz keeps meeting dictators – does he really have no choice?

For Olaf Scholz, the calendar has a delicate date heading into this weekend: Late on Friday afternoon, a jet worth half a billion dollars, sponsored by the Emirate of Qatar, will land at Berlin Airport. On board: Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, one of those rulers who are currently keeping the world in suspense. The Turkish president has been heating up the mood in the Arab world for weeks, cutting off contact with Israel and calling Hamas a “liberation movement” as if it were a group of harmless resisters.

Actually an impossible guest. Yet again. Dictators, despots, villains – Olaf Scholz also receives and visits heads of state with the necessary courtesy that one would not shake hands with under normal circumstances. There’s too much blood on it.

The Emir of Qatar was recently in Berlin, Scholz himself was with Chinese ruler Xi in Beijing and with Egyptian President al-Sisi in Cairo. He spoke to both of them on the phone last week. People talked about Israel and the war in Ukraine. “It would be irresponsible not to use all the contacts that can help in this dramatic situation,” says Scholz.

Xi, al-Sisi, the Emir – they are all, like Erdoğan, good examples of the dilemma that German foreign policy finds itself in and of the constant balancing act that it has to carry out. You would rather not have anything to do with people like that. But it doesn’t work without them. There is too much at stake, both nationally and internationally. It’s about peace, the economy, and refugee movements. And about the climate.

The Chancellor just looks confused

How close to dictators can a democracy afford without becoming untrustworthy? Are the contacts beneficial or harmful? All Chancellors and one Chancellor were faced with this question.