“Yes, I can”
Scholz has the arrogance charge rejected
6/29/2022, 1:53 p.m
Because he did not answer a journalist’s question at the G7 summit, Chancellor Scholz had to be accused of arrogance by media representatives. Now a spokeswoman reacts to the allegation – and rejects it, as expected.
The federal government has rejected allegations about the behavior of Chancellor Olaf Scholz at the final press conference of the G7 summit in Elmau. Asked how she reacted to the accusation that Scholz had reacted arrogantly to a journalist’s question, deputy government spokeswoman Christiane Hoffmann replied: “Of course I can only reject the accusation at this point.”
A journalist from Deutsche Welle spoke to Scholz at the press conference about security guarantees for Ukraine, which were an issue at the summit. “Could you specify what security guarantees these are?” she asked. The Chancellor replied with a smile: “Yes”, (short pause) “I could”, (longer pause) “that’s it”. He probably wanted to make it clear that he would not answer any further.
Some media representatives criticized this as arrogant on the Internet. Among other things, he was attested to be arrogant and snotty. The journalist herself wrote on Twitter that it was a pity that the chancellor had not answered. The question was meant quite seriously.
Others defended Scholz. For example, the SPD member of the Bundestag Isabel Cademartori asked on Twitter why a “You won’t get it, old man” from the mouth of Economics Minister Robert Habeck was better than an “ironic, grinning ‘Yes. I could'”.
The Chancellor’s spokeswoman also commented on the content of the question. When asked about security guarantees for Ukraine, Scholz repeatedly answered in detail in connection with the G7 and said everything that could be said about it at the moment.