Olaf Scholz: Now he is leading – unfortunately in the wrong direction

Opinion

There you go, he can do it: the power word. Olaf Scholz can’t just please his own people. The relationship between Scholz and his SPD is obviously disturbed, as the scandal surrounding the Chancellor’s plain text shows. What is particularly irritating, however, is how little the Chancellor and the Chancellor’s party are doing to counteract this fatal impression.

But one thing at a time.

For weeks there has been a bitter debate in the SPD about the course of migration policy. Party leftists in particular are bothered by the tougher approach. The Chancellor must not have missed the pronounced unease of his comrades, after all, he is the recipient of several incendiary letters in which he is quite bluntly accused of reproducing right-wing narratives. That in itself is a remarkable event. Things are seething in the SPD. And your chancellor? Seethes back unabashedly.

The SPD doesn’t want this plain text from Olaf Scholz

On Tuesday, several comrades again spoke out critically, for whom the now weakened package of measures went too far. This prompted Scholz to issue a word of power internally, which some understood as a threat of a vote of confidence, after all, if necessary, the Chancellor wanted to “make use of my options,” as he reportedly said. The message was unmistakable: I’ve got the faxes – we’ll do it now.

The episode is profound, in many ways.

Scholz seems to completely lack a feeling for his comrades. The SPD has asked him countless times to shed the role of mediator and moderator and to show more leadership; to finally set a social democratic tone in the exhausting traffic light interaction. Now Scholz is giving the long-awaited word of power – but on an issue that does not mobilize or inspire his party, but rather severely polarizes it. That’s at least insensitive, sometimes clumsy: a controversial and irritating topic with a “Basta!” stalling is unlikely to calm or convince the skeptics in the SPD, and may even awaken their fighting spirit to rebel against the Chancellor’s course. Juso boss Philipp Türmer is already calling for steadfastness.

However, the outrage over Scholz’s announcement is just as questionable – and a bit hypocritical. The Chancellor shows leadership, but in the wrong direction? That can’t be it either. “Olaf, you always say: Anyone who orders a tour from me gets a tour,” . “Then hit the table more often. He won’t hit back.” Now the table is literally blowing up in the Chancellor’s face because he hit it – but the comrades don’t like it. According to the motto: If you want to speak plainly, then only to the coalition partners.

What remains? A plain text from the Chancellor that was apparently cryptic enough to be misunderstood: Did he now threaten to ask for a vote of confidence or not? And desperate top comrades who somehow try to recapture what can no longer be recaptured. The internal exchange of blows is made into a “lively debate”, the resistance to the security package is glossed over as “manageable” – and legitimate criticism is thus reduced to nothing. As a result, both the Chancellor and the Chancellor’s party look stupid.