The SPD achieved a historically poor result in the European elections. Now Chancellor Olaf Scholz is calling for security and confidence to be strengthened.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) has admitted that there is a crisis of confidence in German politics. “Constant experiences of crises have shaken confidence, there is no other way to put it,” said Scholz on Wednesday in a government statement in the Bundestag in Berlin. There is currently a “competition with populists and extremists who are abusing the concerns of citizens for their own ends,” said the Chancellor. Politicians are faced with the task of counteracting the uncertainty: “What we have to do is strengthen security – internal and external security.”
The issue of security will have a “clear priority” in the draft budget for next year, which the coalition will present in July, Scholz announced in the government statement on the upcoming EU and NATO summits. “Without security, everything is nothing – and we will express that with what we are setting in motion here.”
Scholz described the result of the European elections, in which his party had achieved a historically poor result, as a “watershed”: The result showed “that in view of all the many crises, many people have clearly lost their confidence,” he said. This gives the government a mandate: “We must re-establish confidence where it is lacking.”
Scholz against savings in the social sector
Scholz rejected cuts in the social sector because this would be at the expense of social cohesion: There should be “no cuts in social justice, health, care or pensions”. The government’s goal must be to get the economy growing faster again – because the state has more room for spending “if the pie grows”.
European elections
How the parties react to the results
Scholz said that his coalition would therefore launch a “growth boost” together with the draft budget. There were “very collegial discussions in the federal government” on this, the Chancellor added – and was laughed at by the opposition.
The Chancellor warned urgently against debates about distribution – the focus should be much more on economic recovery. Scholz complained about an “incredible spread of zero-sum thinking”. This only leads to “envy and resentment and not to cooperation”.
Source: Stern
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