The traffic light government is heavily criticized. Three selected citizens made this clear to Olaf Scholz in an “RTL Direkt special”. The Chancellor has to listen to harsh criticism.
By Lukas Märkle
Migration, internal security, inflation – Olaf Scholz knows the process. Several citizens are allowed to express their concerns to the Chancellor – for the third time in the RTL program “At the table with Olaf Scholz”. Concerns from dinner tables across the Federal Republic go directly to the head of government. And the voices from the population have serious doubts about the course of the Hanseatic state and its government.
The descriptions by Michael Kyrath from Elmshorn (Schleswig-Holstein) have an enormous impact in the studio. At the beginning of 2023, the refugee Ibrahim A. murdered Kyrath’s 17-year-old daughter and her 19-year-old boyfriend on a regional train in Brokstedt. The perpetrator stabbed the young couple 38 times without warning, says the dental technician from Schleswig-Holstein.
For him, the act raises many questions – to which Scholz and the federal government obviously do not provide the right answers. “We have rules and laws in Germany that aren’t actually bad at all. The problem is that we have politicians who don’t comply with these laws,” said 49-year-old Kyrath. It is incomprehensible why refugees who commit crimes are still in the country. A. had been in custody until a few days before the knife attack.
Olaf Scholz calls for harsher punishments
The Federal Chancellor is clearly shocked by the incident. This is a crime “that will not go away from my mind.” “When I think about it, it comes to mind too,” said Scholz. One can hardly believe what fate has befallen the “young people”. A formulation that angers Kyrath. “This isn’t about people, it’s about people and their names were Ann-Marie and Denny,” said the father of the killed 17-year-old. Scholz “just doesn’t have time for the election campaign.”
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The measures taken since then are not enough for him. No knife zones? Although they help the police with better control options, they do not deter perpetrators. Craftsmen have to document everything and at the same time the state allows people into the country uncontrolled? Incomprehensible to him. “Always the same perpetrator profile and murder weapon,” says Kyrath. There is a lot of discussion about politics, but talking no longer gets us anywhere.
Scholz promises action and refers to the measures taken to improve the exchange of information between authorities, to return criminals “quickly” and advocates for tougher jurisprudence in the case of violent crimes. “I also want to say that it would have been a case for me to combine the conviction with preventive detention,” said Scholz. “There is a way we can do that and I hope the courts look at those options more often than they do today.” He created an Excel spreadsheet to provide an overview of the problems in the subject area.
Fighting the “bureaucracy monster”
Also part of his plan: The border controls should continue for a “very long time” – even if this is currently not met with enthusiasm among neighboring countries, as he suggests. And he promises more deportation flights towards Afghanistan. When? He doesn’t want to answer that. The question of what rejections at the border that comply with European law should ultimately look like remains just as open.
It’s not just Kyrath who is disappointed – the other invitees are too. Disappointed with Scholz and his government. But not only. The problem goes deeper, a disappointment with “big” politics, which doesn’t help citizens but rather puts obstacles in their way.
The bureaucracy that slows down, makes everything more expensive and makes everything impossible bothers both the craftswoman and influencer Sandra Hunke from North Rhine-Westphalia and the mayor of the small Saxon town of Grünhain-Beierfeld, Mirko Geißler.
The mayor of the community, which has around 6,000 inhabitants, has to struggle with the jungle of regulations – streets can hardly be renovated and houses cannot be restored. Legal requirements and costs would make it impossible for young people to address these issues. A lack of building land, a problem that Scholz formulates in the program, is not one of them. The “bureaucracy monster” must be fought, said Geißler. Scholz promises a remedy. A lot of effort was put into moving from “saying sayings to taking action”.
“Butt high premium” causes upset
At the same time, according to moderator Pinar Atalay, Scholz was not met with enthusiasm among those present with the “butt-high bonus” that the government was aiming for. The money is intended to be an incentive for long-term unemployed people to get back to work and hold on for at least a year. “I’ve been working since I was 14,” says the 32-year-old Hunke. Nobody pays her a bonus for going to work.
Even the Chancellor has doubts about the measure: “We were all born to work,” said Scholz. You can see that on the beach, where people build sandcastles and don’t just lie around. And he doesn’t share the view that you have to lure people to work, as he explains. Therefore, 90 percent of the new measures for citizens’ money are “stricter, tougher” regulations. Scholz makes it clear: Nobody wants to reward those who refuse to work here.
Scholz was able to convince women like Hunke in the last election. She gave him her voice. And was disappointed. Even after the conversation she doesn’t seem convinced. “What I’ve heard is promising,” said the trade influencer. But what will be implemented in the end?
Despite the poor numbers in the surveys, Scholz remains confident. “I will win the federal election, like the last one.” An ambitious statement. In a current survey by Forsa for RTL/ntv, the SPD is at 17 percent – 14 percentage points behind the CDU. Their boss taunts the Chancellor: A candidate for Chancellor Boris Pistorius would be an asset for the country. “It’s me too,” Scholz replied dryly.
Transparency note: The star belongs to RTL Deutschland.
Source: Stern
I have been working in the news industry for over 6 years, first as a reporter and now as an editor. I have covered politics extensively, and my work has appeared in major newspapers and online news outlets around the world. In addition to my writing, I also contribute regularly to 24 Hours World.