Why Olaf Scholz has to bring Friedrich Merz to the passenger seat immediately

Olaf Scholz was alone in London. That may sound not surprising. After all, it is normal for him to travel to the Ukraine summit as Chancellor, whom the British Premier Keir Strander had convened in the USA after the scandal when visiting Wolodymyr Selenskyj in the USA.

But in advance the call had become loud, Scholz should take his designated successor Friedrich Merz with him. Both sides are silent about why this did not happen. Didn’t Scholz ask? Or not wanted? And wouldn’t it be a strange picture at all if an incumbent Chancellor with his alleged successor checked out there?

In the Union it is now pointed out that Scholz ‘predecessor Angela Merkel did exactly this. In October 2021, one month after the Bundestag election, she invited Scholz to accompany her to the G20 summit. Quasi to introduce him on an international stage as future chancellor.

Of course, the comparison lags. Because Scholz had not defeated Merkel, but the Union Chancellor candidate Armin Laschet. In addition, as a finance minister and Vice Chancellor, he had a cabinet post, so he was more likely to be a female from an international perspective than a man who is election winner, Union faction leader and CDU chairman, but does not hold a government office.

Nevertheless, taking it would not only have been a large gesture, but also an important and right one.

Because since Friday at the latest, the last should have become clear that we are in a moment of upheaval that will have dramatic consequences for Europe and Germany. Donald Trump and his government have terminated the transatlantic community of values, the most important ally is eliminated. Now a strong leadership must be created in Europe and in Germany as soon as possible.

There is a mammoth task in front of Friedrich Merz. He, who has no government experience (as his opponents have repeatedly emphasized), must now familiarize himself with the most important office in the state and make serious decisions. Unlike his predecessors, he has no grace period for this.

If Scholz is as much close to the country as he has always emphasized, then he should now put his ego and his in parts perhaps even justified anger to the previous rival and do everything to make an optimal transition. That Merz gets a real chance of leading this country out of the crisis.

“There is no government internship, and there is no adoption,” said government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit shortly after the election. This is an attitude that can be affected in peace. But in times like these there are things that should go beyond one’s own condition.

The argument that this does not belong diplomatically are also obsolete. Trump already had his daughter Ivanka sitting on his place at the table with the other heads of state and government in his first term when visiting the 2017 G20 summit in Hamburg. Also in his second term, he demonstrates every day anew that the previous rules of governance and diplomacy have no meaning for him.

In view of the regular breaker in the White House, Germans should also think about disruption in their behavior. Everything that moves on the bottom of the constitution is legitimate. It is part of it that a Chancellor takes his successor to international meetings.

Olaf Scholz will not go down in history as a great chancellor. But he can go down in history that has proven its true size in the departure.

And Friedrich Merz will have to show that he can develop from an opposition politician, which is repeatedly controlled by impulses and prone to populist slogans. The special summit in Brussels on Thursday would be a first small opportunity.