It’s only been two weeks as Angela Merkel in an interview with the Süddeutsche Zeitung claimedthat she could also sleep peacefully when Olaf Scholz was Federal Chancellor. But now at least Merkel’s first political confidante is rolling in the sheets in the Chancellery when thinking of her successor: Helge Braun, head of the Chancellery and Merkel’s most important corona fighter, has now attacked Olaf Scholz as clearly as Merkel and her surroundings hadn’t been heard throughout the election campaign. And Bavaria’s Prime Minister Markus Söder went one better.
Scholz, so Braun let through to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, prevent a federal-state meeting to coordinate the corona policy. This is happening despite the increasing number of infections out of consideration for the ongoing coalition negotiations between the SPD and the Greens and the FDP. “I find that irresponsible for a future Federal Chancellor, for example,” said Braun.
The head of the Chancellery suggested that Scholz wanted to avoid the conflict with the FDP, which had repeatedly criticized the corona policy of the now only executive black-red federal government in recent months. Most recently, FDP parliamentary group manager Marco Buschmann had expressly asked the Chancellor to be cautious about the corona policy just a few days ago.
Government spokesman Steffen Seibert confirmed on Friday that Merkel “is ready for a conference of prime ministers”. The prerequisite is “that the request from the countries is there”. Scholz apparently claims that the SPD countries do not want an MPK. From the Union, however, support for Braun immediately came on Saturday: “Where is the traffic light? Where is Olaf Scholz,” asked the Bavarian Prime Minister and CSU leader Markus Söder on the sidelines of the state party conference of the Saxon CDU in Dresden.
You can now feel that the fourth wave “could hit us massively,” said Söder. The hospitals are already threatened with overload and “a fight for the intensive care bed between the unvaccinated corona patients and the vaccinated cancer, heart attack and stroke patients”. That is why we now need “urgently uniform solutions”. The traffic light parties SPD, Greens and FDP ducked completely away. There is talk of an end to the epidemic situation, although the opposite is the case.
Among other things, Söder called for more 2-G regulations, i.e. access to buildings and events only for vaccinated and convalescent people. These rules should be uniform across the country. This requires a “uniform, binding management”. The traffic light is also “completely lacking in commitment and commitment to the hospitals and the nursing staff.” So there is a lot to discuss, said Söder. “And that’s why I think it’s a shame and incomprehensible that the SPD also refuses to hold talks.” That is “impossible” in the current situation. With a view to Scholz, Söder concluded: “If you like going to G 20, you can go to a meeting with 16 countries.” Scholz recently accompanied Merkel to the G-20 summit in Rome and – which is unusual – also took part in important discussions as the designated successor to the Chancellor, for example the conversation with US President Joe Biden.
The conflict between Merkel’s Chancellor Braun and the likely future Chancellor Scholz also highlights the question of who will be responsible at the federal level in the transition period of the change of government. Merkel as Chancellor and Scholz as Finance Minister continue to be in office, i.e. without a parliamentary majority that has confirmed them. The SPD, Greens and FDP are currently negotiating the formation of a traffic light coalition, but formally they will only be in office after Scholz’s election in the Bundestag and the appointment of the government by the Federal President.
Seibert said it was “important for the citizens to know that we are not in a phase in which we have no government”, even if it is formally only executive in office. There is a state practice that provides for a “certain restraint” and “close coordination” with the potential successor government. At the same time, the Chancellor is still committed to her oath of office, according to which she has to avert harm to the German people. She will work for this “until the last day of her term of office,” said Seibert. This also includes “that we can get this now very difficult, very challenging fourth wave as a country, as a community well under control”. This also requires “good agreements” between the federal government and the states.
Scholz himself initially did not want to comment on Saturday when asked.