“A blatant know-it-all”
Strack-Zimmermann takes Scholz to task
29.05.2024, 02:23 a.m.
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The opinions of Chancellor Scholz and defense expert Strack-Zimmermann are divided, particularly when it comes to arms aid for Ukraine. In an interview, the FDP politician makes it clear that she rejects the Social Democrat’s style outright and in principle.
The FDP’s top candidate for the European elections, Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, has expressed sharp and very fundamental criticism of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s political style. “You can’t reach him because he’s a complete know-it-all,” she told the “Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung”. “After three years, I’ve noticed that he has almost autistic traits, both in terms of his social contacts in politics and his inability to explain his actions to citizens.”
Strack-Zimmermann is currently chair of the Bundestag’s Defense Committee and a vocal advocate of extensive support for Ukraine in the war against Russia. In this context, she has repeatedly drawn attention with harsh criticism of Scholz, whom she repeatedly accused of hesitation in supplying weapons to Kiev. The FDP defense expert now stressed that her criticism does not only refer to the Chancellor’s Ukraine policy. “This applies to all issues and is also confirmed to me by his party colleagues.”
SPD base prefers Pistorius
In fact, the SPD has also recently been sharply criticizing Scholz and his political style. In mid-May, North Saxony’s SPD parliamentary group leader Heiko Wittig was the first SPD politician to openly support Defense Minister Boris Pistorius’ candidacy for chancellor. A renewed candidacy by Scholz would lead to a “rude awakening” for the SPD in the 2025 federal election, Wittig told the “Tagesspiegel”. The entire base of the Social Democrats sees it that way.
Wittig diagnosed a lack of leadership in Chancellor Scholz. “There is a reason why Pistorius has been at the top of all popularity lists for months and Olaf Scholz at the bottom,” Wittig told the newspaper: “Everyone I talk to criticizes Scholz for being too quiet. The Chancellor has the authority to set guidelines, but Scholz does not exercise it. To date, he has not even visibly asserted himself. Unlike Schmidt, Kohl, Schröder, even Angela Merkel.” Overall, the Chancellor is a brusque Hanseatic whose manner is hardly popular with people outside of northern Germany.