One certainly does not offend Olaf Scholz when one realizes that he is not an “iron chancellor” like Bismarck, not “the old chief” like Adenauer, not a second “pilot” like Helmut Schmidt and certainly not a “black giant” like the Palatinate cabbage was called in its vigorous days.
Scholz embodies – quite the child of his time – a cultural connectivity in any direction. True to the old 1968 motto: “Better bi than never.” He doesn’t want to be iron, but gentle. His office does not work with an anvil and hammer, but with the gentleness of an Ayurveda clinic. There is no drilling and cutting, but meditating, massaging and moderating.
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There are days when our chancellor seems invisible. You can occasionally hear him scolding, like yesterday in the Bundestag. But you don’t really feel it. The excited tone seems rehearsed.
Olaf Scholz is looking for soul mates – not with Friedrich Merz – but with his government members. This chancellor – so much can be said after nine months in office – is not striving for dominance, but for balance. He distributes his political affection in a very equal manner between the FDP and the Greens in order to keep the emotional life of his traffic light coalition in balance.
The desired harmonious success in the coalition comes about: There is a lot of bickering in the basement of the house and the mortgage burden increases due to the many political ransoms, but the house itself does not wobble. Political stability is no small thing given the hurricane-force gusts brewing from the global economy. The political detoxification prescribed and practiced by Scholz – especially in the age of the excitement cocktails injected by the media – should also be digestible for the country.
Only in foreign relations can Olaf Scholz’s gentle medicine not have any effect. Americans and Chinese are carnivores by nature, and Putin doesn’t spend his evenings doing yoga and mango lassi either. “The German chancellor hasn’t left a mark in Europe either,” concludes the New York Times.
President Theodore Roosevelt once said, “Those who are strong can afford to speak softly. But the reverse conclusion is not permissible. The quiet is not automatically the powerful. Or to put it another way: Olaf Scholz’s Ayurveda policy works internally. It is not an export hit.
Guest article by Gabor Steingart – 8 facts show how the relief package “petrifies” our future
On the second evening of the Pioneer summer cruise on the Rhine yesterday, the Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, Hendrik Wüst, was a guest on Pioneer One in Düsseldorf.
During the drive past the Rheinterrassen, the state parliament and the Rheinkniebrücke, Pioneer editor-in-chief Michael Bröcker asked the CDU head of government in the most populous federal state about the energy crisis and the upcoming CDU party conference at the weekend. He assesses the nuclear power plant debate as follows: “We in NRW are ready to make our contribution to creating all the state legal requirements to bring power plants back on the grid. Now pragmatism is required.”
He criticizes the traffic light coalition’s approach to creating the relief packages: “What I don’t think is right is that one automatically assumes that the countries will also pay for it.”
In addition, there is no answer on the subject of medium-sized companies, the economy and energy prices. He threatens the government with a mediation process if there are no changes: “If necessary, we will go to the mediation committee.”
This body of the Bundestag and Bundesrat should find a consensus if laws passed by the Bundestag do not find a majority in the state chamber. The head of government of North Rhine-Westphalia emphasizes: “I have spoken to many prime ministers in the last few days. The covenant spoke to no one.”
Hendrik Wüst is threatening the federal government with a mediation process for the relief package if there are no changes. “This is where the countries get down to business,” said the CDU politician, who is currently heading the Prime Ministers’ Conference. There is no answer on the subject of medium-sized companies, the economy and energy prices. Funding is missing elsewhere: “The budget debate for next year in North Rhine-Westphalia is over. It’s the same in all countries.”
My colleague also asks him about his biggest goal as a politician: “Remain an industrial country and become CO2-neutral. This is a task that will keep me busy for a very long time.”
About a possible green-black government in the federal government, he says: “In any case, this constellation opens up opportunities that you probably wouldn’t have if you were to face each other as government and opposition, as usual.”
This is a young politician who still has his time ahead of him. If Hendrik Wüst were not a person but a stock, one would have to guess this morning: urgently buy more.
