The dispute over arms deliveries to Ukraine strains the traffic light. Criticism of the chancellor comes from the governing parties as if they were still in the opposition. Who doesn’t dream of Jamaica?
If you wanted to cover the Berlin political guard with animal comparisons on the occasion of the rabbit festival, and honestly, why shouldn’t you, some interesting conclusions emerge.
Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck: definitely Labrador. Habeck’s state of mind is always recognizable, he has no mysteriousness whatsoever, he’s always a bit sweet, somehow, someone who goes along with any nonsense. Often on the water, loyal soul, and always there when you need him.
Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner: classic octopus. Extremely smart, can use his arms to open tightly sealed containers (federal budget) and probably type the correct World Cup results. The failed Jamaica alliance showed that if you put him in distress, he shoots out a dark cloud and is suddenly gone.
The Cat Chancellor and the Mice
Olaf Scholz, on the other hand, is undeniably a cat chancellor: his love is unpredictable, he is not seen for weeks, then he suddenly strokes his legs (appearances at Joko & Klaas, “Bild”, Maybrit Illner), a little later he is constant again away, sneaking silently through the government district. You never quite know what’s on his mind, he seems busy and yet inscrutable, clever, and he probably sometimes vomits chewed houseplants onto the carpet. (The latter is speculation, but no metaphor is perfect.)
Scholzen’s feline nature is cute, but now it causes serious concern: Because when the cat is gone, the mice dance on the table, and these mice are the defense politician Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann (FDP), the European politician Anton “Toni” Hofreiter ( Greens) and the foreign politician Michael Roth (SPD). These three are chairmen of the relevant specialist committees in the Bundestag and recently returned from a trip to Lviv. Since then they have been putting pressure on their own chancellor, Olaf Scholz.
Scholz openly describes the liberals as “procrastinators” on Deutschlandfunk, Hofreiter calls him a “problem in the Chancellery” on “RTL Direkt”, Roth also calls for heavy weapons and is promptly reprimanded by parliamentary group leader Rolf Mützenich, which immediately causes Strack-Zimmermann’s hat cord to burst : “Unfortunately, Rolf #Mützenich is one of those who neither understood nor want to understand the necessity of their own chancellor’s #turnaround”, she writes.
A toast to coziness
When it comes to weapons, Scholz behaves exactly like a cat that opens the door in the gray April weather: it stands, stares and doesn’t move. What does the chancellor know? Did Putin personally roll a nuclear bomb into the chancellery and is holding the trigger in his hand? Observers like Ralf Fücks to warn: The SPD majority and the chancellor give Putin “a free hand to escalate the war.”
But Fücks belongs to the Berlin bubble, what do the other Germans say? They want it easy: A slight majority is in favor of arms deliveries says the “Germany trend”about as many want to continue to make themselves comfortable with Russian energy, one learns from an Allensbach study commissioned by the FAZ. In other words: the Ukrainians should keep Ivan off our backs. Silently, if possible, and without us having to take any risks.
It’s not so terribly surprising that “Gemütlichkeit” is one of the few German words used in English – along with “Schadenfreude”, “Zeitgeist” and “Rucksack”, by the way. “Attitude” is not one of our linguistic export goods, which is not surprising either.
Habeck delivers a Carter speech
The week that has just ended has underscored the value of an attitude like no other: the years of pro-Russian coziness of the Federal President flew in his face like a cream cake – he was not allowed to travel to Kyiv, it was said, the details are unclear, In any case, Volodymyr Zelenskyy knew neither of the invitation nor the uninvitation.
Robert Habeck, on the other hand, flew verbal bouquets of flowers because he had already met Vladimir Putin in 2016 read the Levites: no Nord Stream, women of the Syrian butchers are no longer allowed to shop in Germany and advocates of cooperation in Europe get visas, the politician demanded at the time. Habeck’s firm stance gives him so much credibility that he could announce the Germans were going back to nuclear power directly and no leftist would chain himself to the track bed.
He is the de facto chancellor of the German public. With his Easter speech, Habeck swears the Germans to save energy – just like they did earlier mentioned Jimmy Carter’s speech on the energy crisis. He compared energy saving to warfare. Habeck speaks similarly, but in cuddly Labrador language: Saving energy “is easy on the wallet and annoys Putin,” he says. “Annoy” – like chewing the Russian’s slippers.
Scholz is caught in a communicative dilemma
Posture is a compass for times when you can’t immediately calculate the consequences of your own actions, when augurs only have an eye on the next 24 hours and the tactic actually calls for flightiness. Attitude is what distinguishes a politician like Habeck from the agile Markus Söder. attitude made Helmut Kohl the chancellor of unity when many voices in Europe were warning of a united Germany.
What attitude does Scholz lead? He speaks through his confidants, they explain their boss in background discussions with journalists and warn against escalation. Scholz is in a communicative dilemma: he himself is not allowed to warn loudly about this escalation because he is playing into Putin’s hands – but background rounds with journalists who are not allowed to use quotes do not shape newspaper articles and have little influence on public opinion.
In this respect, the impression that the country wants to do everything for Ukraine, except for the chancellor, is a distorted picture. The impression that the coalition is paralyzed on two of the most important issues, the pandemic and the war, is not a distorted image: CDU leader Friedrich Merz is still very quiet, he deliberately falls on weak points in the traffic light and then flutters away again at Easter Animal comparison, he is a kingfisher. “The German chancellor’s silence is becoming a burden on all international solidarity against Russia’s war of aggression,” he says, sounding very similar to Hofreiter.
Dreams of Jamaica
Perhaps both are thinking of Jamaica when they make their statements: a black, green and yellow government alliance. The way there led to new elections or a constructive vote of no confidence. One of these brought Helmut Kohl to power in 1982.
By the way, the decisive factors at the time were, yes really, questions of rearmament (NATO double-track decision) and internal government differences with the FDP. So I end with Shirley Bassey and the Propellerheads:
“There is fashion, there is bland
Some is good, some is bad
And the joke is rather sad
That’s all just a little bit of history repeating“.