Wednesday, December 8th, 2021
Scholz’s father for election
“He’ll do it with solidity”
It is done, Olaf Scholz has been elected as the next Chancellor in the Bundestag. The bouquets of flowers are quickly piled up on the government bench and his parents are watching on the visitors’ gallery. And his father also says something about his son’s success.
When the President of the Bundestag asked Olaf Scholz whether he would accept the election of Chancellor, Scholz took off his mask and said “Yes” – “that was loud and audible,” said Bärbel Bas, although hardly anyone had heard it on the television because the new one Chancellor hadn’t spoken into the microphone. The well-wishers came immediately, SPD parliamentary group leader Rolf Mützenich handed him a red-yellow-green bouquet of flowers, then his CDU counterpart Ralph Brinkhaus and the defeated CDU chancellor candidate Armin Laschet were the first to congratulate. In a short time the flowers piled up on the government bench.
Then the fists were eagerly bumped together, some like Jürgen Trittin or Alice Weidel preferred the handshake. Incidentally, the AfD parliamentary group leader was the only one who did not have a bouquet of flowers for the new Federal Chancellor. In the case of “Phoenix”, she said that she assumed that this government would be “even worse” than the one before it. And even during the long standing farewell applause for Angela Merkel, the parliamentary group had abstained on their special platform for unvaccinated people.
Gerhard and Christel Scholz probably didn’t care about all of that. One can assume that the parents of the new Chancellor felt proud when they watched their son become Chancellor. They believe that he is up to the task anyway: “He will manage it with solidity,” said the father shortly before the election. Scholz’s mother Christel and his wife Britta Ernst also took a seat in the front row of the visitors’ gallery. Striking: She did not applaud in the election. Scholz’s brothers Jens and Ingo also sat in the stands.
Former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder sat there with his wife Soyeon Schröder-Kim and watched as the man who had already been Labor Minister in his cabinet was elected as his successor – as the next, fourth Chancellor from the ranks of the SPD. “It’s a really good day today, for me, for the SPD, but of course especially for Olaf Scholz,” he said at ntv. When asked whether Scholz resembled Schröder or Angela Merkel, the former chancellor waved him off: “He is a completely independent personality and will fill the office independently and as it suits him.” With two coalition partners, a higher degree of communication is required, but Scholz will manage that thanks to his experience.
Scholz’s actual predecessor is of course Angela Merkel. The former CDU leader is the most popular politician in the country and has not been voted out, which is a novelty in the history of the Federal Republic. Their shadow is long: According to a Forsa survey, only eleven percent of Germans believe that the SPD man will govern better. After all: for 57 percent there will be no difference, 27 percent expect a deterioration.