Once when Olaf Scholz performs, a murmur goes through the audience. A little girl walks forward during the question and answer session. “Hello Olaf Scholz, I wrote you a letter,” she says and asks the Chancellor if she can read the letter. “Only if it’s short,” he replies. The guests in the courtyard of the Chancellery seem to be surprised that Scholz consistently enforces the demand for short questions, even with the youngest guests. But the child did not write much. The letter says thank you for Scholz being there. He thanks him and the audience applauds. With that, the tougher tone of the Chancellor is forgotten again.
As has been the case for years, the Federal Government has again invited to the Open Day in 2023. Visitors can visit the federal ministries, try out the customs laser targeting system and ask questions to members of the cabinet at some events.
“Dear Mr. Scholz, why are you doing nothing?”
Not every request to speak from the audience is as friendly as the little girl’s letter. The first question to the Chancellor is: “Dear Mr. Scholz, why aren’t you doing anything?” Scholz defends himself against it. The government ensured that the gas did not run out last winter. In addition, Ukraine has been supported and efforts are being made to make the economy climate-neutral.
The chancellor also used the event to snub his own cabinet. He expressly criticizes the conflict between the Green Family Minister Lisa Paus and Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP). The two have been arguing for months about the financing of basic child security. Scholz called on the traffic light coalition not to express differences of opinion publicly: “And maybe one or the other will then get used to only talking when the agreements have been reached,” said the Chancellor in the question and answer session in front of several hundred visitors.
Will the price of the Germany ticket stay at 49 euros? Lindner does not want to commit himself
Christian Lindner also gets to hear critical questions in the “ministerial dialogue”. A young man in the audience asks about the future of the Deutschlandticket, whose financing beyond the end of the year is currently not certain. One should put more money into the ticket than into “motorways on which hardly anyone drives.” The finance minister can’t resist giving the questioner a political lesson: “Sometimes it’s more helpful to state a concern without giving it to someone else,” says Lindner. He does not want to commit himself to financing or the price. “The point of the Germany ticket was not the price, but to create a comprehensive, digital ticket for all of Germany,” says the FDP leader.
Lindner also comments on the dispute over basic child security. At first he sounds the way the Ministry of Family Affairs and the Greens might want it: “The chance of birth still has a major impact on life chances. It’s a scandal,” says the minister. But he is not sure whether it makes sense to give the parents more money. It could be better to invest in schools and day care centers. The audience applauds him for that.
At least Scholz lets out some news
Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock was the first in line this Sunday. From 11:00 a.m. she is available to answer questions in the courtyard of the government’s press and information office – and uses several questions at the same time to advertise for work in her ministry. She, too, is asked critical questions, for example about the use of cluster munitions in Ukraine, but refuses to be lured out of her reserve. Germany is against cluster munitions, but cannot dictate warfare to Ukraine.
There are limits to openness at the open day: visitors are not allowed to follow up after a possibly unsatisfactory answer. Therefore, the audience learns little new from the ministers and the chancellor. But Scholz lets out some news. “When will the self-determination law come out?” asks a young man, and Scholz replies succinctly: “Next week.” That’s the end of the matter for him. After about an hour and 25 questions, he says goodbye.