Olaf Scholz on tour in Europe – mood test for the new German chancellor – news


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Visits to Paris, Brussels, Warsaw and Rome: Within the first two weeks as the new German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz has already stopped by various European heads of government.

When you first visit FranceWhen Olaf Scholz stood next to French President Emmanuel Macron, he concentrated very much on not doing anything wrong, says “Welt” journalist Claudia Kade. «Macron tried again and again to make eye contact with Scholz to demonstrate: ‘Here we are the new strong men in Europe.’

However, Scholz did not even notice it because he was staring so rigidly into the crowd of journalists. “That was a symbol of Scholz’s endeavor not to slip away on the international stage.”

In terms of content, however, Scholz and Macron seemed to have largely agreed. It was different in Poland: There Scholz caused some displeasure when he spoke out against further reparation payments for World War II. That in itself is not unusual, says Kade. “His predecessor Angela Merkel did the same thing.” But he had to learn that as Federal Chancellor every sentence counted when he brought Germany’s EU payments into play.

It is rare to upset the government and the opposition in equal measure.

As a justification for his rejection of reparations payments, he said that Germany was a net payer in the EU and that this money would also benefit Poland. “That was not at all well received by the government and the opposition in Warsaw,” said Kade. “And that is seldom that you anger the government and the opposition alike.”

Scholz was also a guest at the EU in Brussels. An important topic there was the threatened attack by Russia on Ukraine. He emphasized the support for Ukraine. He left it open, however, as to whether Germany would use the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, which is soon to bring gas from Russia to the EU, as a means of pressure against Russia.

“The Russia question is actually one of the most difficult foreign policy issues for Scholz at the moment,” says the “Welt” journalist. That is because there are conflicting interests in his coalition. “On the one hand, the Green Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock is very hard on the course against Russia and says that Nordstream 2 should not go into operation as long as Russia is behaving as it is currently doing.”

Scholz doesn’t do anything at first, what he always likes to do.

On the other hand, Scholz has in his own party, the SPD, in turn Russia-friendly party friends such as former Federal Chancellor Gerhard Schröder. According to Kade, Scholz must hold these opposing interests together. “He cannot risk the big coalition crisis on the Russia question right away.” In the EU, the positions are distributed similarly. “It’s a very difficult field and Scholz does what he always likes to do, nothing at first.”

Most recently, Scholz was in Italy to visit. “You could see where the break with the Merkel government is likely to take place,” explains the political observer, namely with the reorganization of EU finances; of financial flows from north to south. It was already clear in the SPD election campaign that Scholz would have no problem with softening the Maastricht criteria a bit for the joint borrowing.

Claudia Kade

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Claudia Kade has been Head of Politics at the German daily newspaper “Die Welt” since 2017. She is a regular guest on talk shows.

“Hints of that could also be heard in Rome,” said Kade. “But he has to be careful, because he still has a third coalition partner, the FDP. She provides the finance minister and sees all of the EU financial issues completely differently. ” Overall, Scholz had his top priority at his first meeting, namely not making mistakes. “He refrained from setting great impulses himself right from the start, instead he first took up the mood in the countries.”

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