Olaf Scholz at the citizens’ dialogue in Saxony: “Diplomats instead of grenades”

The situation is still calm. Olaf Scholz arrived in Glashütte this Thursday afternoon. The small Saxon town has around 6,700 inhabitants and, thanks to its watch factories, one of the lowest unemployment rates in all of Saxony.

Nevertheless, the Chancellor is, to a certain extent, traveling in enemy territory. Here in the Eastern Ore Mountains, almost one in three voted for the AfD with the second vote in the federal election. Only 15.5 percent voted for Olaf Scholz’s party. The forecast for the state elections in September looks even bleaker: In the polls, the SPD is only at seven percent, dangerously close to the five percent hurdle.

Scholz therefore spends a whole day in Saxony, at an aircraft manufacturer in Dresden, at a democracy project on a Dresden tram, at a citizens’ discussion – and in Glashütte.

At first glance, the place seems tranquil, as if it were spotted in an idyllic landscape. But Ricarda Lang experienced how politically explosive the atmosphere here is during her visit at the beginning of February. The police had to protect the discussion with the Green Party leader in the city church on the subject of migration with a large contingent. Around 150 demonstrators honked their horns loudly in front of the door.

Praise for failure

The fact that Olaf Scholz decided to stop off in Glashütte on his Saxony tour has something to do with Nomos. The owner-managed watch manufacturer is a showcase project for government politicians: because of the growing profits – and because the company positioned itself against right-wing extremism and the AfD much earlier than others in the economy.

In the company’s factory assembly area, Scholz looks at how a clock is started. He hesitantly agrees to the employee’s suggestion that he use the so-called regulator himself with tweezers and a magnifying glass. And the Chancellor actually lacks the necessary tact. He can’t get the clock to tick. The employee still thinks: “He’s doing well.”

The Chancellor rarely receives so much praise for failure.

The counter-program was waiting for the Chancellor just a few hours later in front of the “Culture Power Plant”, a former thermal power plant in Dresden. While around 160 citizens gathered inside for a “Chancellor’s Talk”, there were almost 80 demonstrators outside. Some wave the white and green flags of the right-wing extremist Free Saxony party, which has called for protests. Others drum. One person holds up a sign: “Habeck, Scholz and Co. are a handicap for our country…”. But a real mood of popular anger doesn’t want to arise, so even a whipper who explains to the crowd in the deepest Saxon language that the government wants to “make the people as small as possible” doesn’t help. And then the Chancellor also uses another entrance. Disappointed, the demonstrators left after almost an hour of drumming and whistling.

Not a feel-good event for Olaf Scholz

When Scholz arrived on time, he was greeted with friendly applause. The moderator’s warm-up question about what he finds typically Saxon is followed by a typical Scholz phrase: “I find it difficult to say because there is so much diversity.”

It won’t be a purely feel-good event for the Chancellor. This is evident from the first question from the audience. An older man criticizes the military support for Ukraine: “The federal government has chosen the sword and not the spirit, for arms deliveries and not diplomacy. Why?”

Scholz draws a few loops in the answer. He emphasizes once again that there will be no German soldiers on Ukrainian soil and scoffs at talk shows in which “one field marshal after another” gathers to give advice. When asked another question, Scholz once again talks about his Taurus rejection. With these you can “achieve a concrete goal in Moscow” and therefore this is not a “question that you just decide casually with self-encouraging sayings”. One must prevent an “escalation of the war”.

In these moments, a theme resonates that could also become the theme tune for the upcoming federal election campaign: Scholz as the level-headed chancellor who will not allow Germany to be driven into war. Scholz knows that he is touching a nerve with the population. According to a current survey by RTL/ntv, 56 percent of Germans are against the delivery of Taurus missiles, and in East Germany the figure is even significantly higher.

Scholz also comments on the accusation of not trying enough diplomacy. This clearly annoys him. He has spoken to Putin several times. But he is not willing to negotiate. Scholz has urgent advice for peace activists: If you have any doubts about Putin’s claim to hegemony, he recommends taking a look at the Russian president’s texts and speeches: “He actually thinks that Belarus and Ukraine belong to him. You can read that there.”

The grenade moment causes unrest on the internet

There’s a lot more going on this evening: poverty in old age, housing shortages, double contributions to company pensions, and digitalization. Scholz always answers in a friendly and approachable manner, sometimes gives the explanation, praises his own successes at length, and veers off into phrases. So he answers a desperate teacher who complains about the catastrophic staffing ratio in daycare centers, saying that we have to analyze the situation “realistically” and “work together.”

A sentence from the Chancellor took on a life of its own on social networks and caused a brief moment of excitement. He replied slightly flippantly to a man who had handed him a sheet with the slogan “Diplomats instead of grenades”: “Yes, diplomats instead of grenades is the sentence that we are chanting together in the direction of the Kremlin in Moscow.” In the social networks, where the excerpt from the context is reproduced, the Chancellor’s sentence is understood as a capitulation. The Chancellor is sending a message to Putin: If he stops the aggression, Germany would no longer supply weapons to Ukraine.

At the Dresden cultural powerhouse, the audience is unaware of the excitement on social networks. When the meeting with the Chancellor was over after an hour and a half, most people seemed satisfied. The day in Dresden shows that those who still listen to Olaf Scholz are not the problem for the Chancellor and his government. But those who no longer want to listen.