Caren Miosga: Olaf Scholz gives up his last trump card

With his speech on Wednesday, in which Chancellor Olaf Scholz called his fired Finance Minister Christian Lindner “petty”, “ideological” and “selfish”, the Chancellor showed that he can attack. With his appearance on “Caren Miosga” on Sunday evening he shows: He can’t do it without a teleprompter.

Olaf Scholz actually had no time to waste. According to surveys, twice as many voters would currently vote for the CDU as Scholz’s SPD. At prime time, right after the “crime scene”, Scholz could have made it clear why he is still the right chancellor – and not CDU leader Friedrich Merz. But he only says with a gentle smile: There are differences in character and temperament. “I think I’m a little cooler when it comes to state affairs, to put it politely.” Well, isn’t there an election campaign here yet?

Scholz seems to shy away from a frontal attack on his worst opponent. In his speech about the traffic lights being turned off on Wednesday evening, the CDU Chancellor even suggested that we “make decisions together that our country needs now” before an election date he proposed in March.

But Merz has so far shown no interest in granting the outgoing Chancellor any legislative successes in the last few meters. In an interview with the star he calls on Olaf Scholz to ask the Bundestag for a vote of confidence next Wednesday and thus clear the way for new elections. Scholz is already one on the international stage “lame duck”: The CDU leader argues that anyone who does not have a majority in their own country will not be taken seriously by their partners.

At Miosga, Scholz doesn’t shoot back – he goes towards Merz. SPD parliamentary group leader Rolf Mützenich will agree on a date with the CDU candidate for chancellor. “If Rolf Mützenich and Friedrich Merz say we want to have new elections, then the Chancellor will make it possible,” says Scholz. And: “Putting the vote of confidence before Christmas would be no problem for me at all.” After all, he doesn’t stick to his job.

And then Scholz goes even further. He emphasizes: When he asks the question of confidence does not depend on the approval of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group for the last projects of his chancellorship. With this, Scholz gives up his last trump card. Until now, a deal according to the following scheme was conceivable: Scholz fulfills Merz’s request for an earlier election date, but in return Merz provides the Chancellor with the necessary votes to implement some outstanding SPD heart projects:

At Miosga, Scholz now admits that the Union is unlikely to agree to the pension package from the SPD Ministry of Social Affairs. And it is still completely unclear whether opponent Merz will play a role in the other projects. Dem star he says: “We can talk about that as soon as Olaf Scholz has asked the vote of confidence in the German Bundestag.” Now Friedrich Merz is setting the conditions.

Of course, Merz wants to prevent Scholz from quickly handing out expensive campaign gifts to pensioners and families. Even Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck recently distanced himself from the plans: it shouldn’t be about “implementing pet projects,” he said.

Merz’s CDU has rarely done as well in the polls since the 2021 federal election as it does now – the chancellorship must seem within Friedrich Merz’s grasp. This is also why Merz is insisting on an early election date. He must not have forgotten that Scholz managed a spectacular comeback before the last election. The Chancellor is hoping for that this time too.

In the end, Miosga wants to know where he gets the belief that he can still make up 17 percentage points behind. Scholz says: “It’s the same belief that I had before the last federal election.” At that time it became clear that a gap like today was a “very catchable magnitude”. Can this be achieved without harsh words about his competitor Friedrich Merz?