Shortly before Chancellor Scholz left for the United States, criticism came from the CDU leadership. Friedrich Merz even tries to make a comparison with former Chancellor Helmut Schmidt.
Before the USA trip from Olaf Scholz has CDU boss Friedrich Merz accused the Federal Chancellor of hesitant foreign policy. “This trip comes too late. It would have been necessary weeks ago and then with a clear message from the most important European countries in the luggage,” said Merz of “Bild am Sonntag”. “Now the trip seems like a visit from a petitioner who can’t get out of a situation that he has caused himself and therefore has to ask his big brother in Washington for help.”
Scholz’ role model Helmut Schmidt had long since been to negotiations in Washington and Moscow, added the CDU chairman. “Under him as chancellor, Germany obviously likes its role as an outsider, as a naysayer and as an obstacle to a European strategy,” criticized Merz. The chancellor’s “speechlessness” stunned him. “In the midst of the greatest threat to peace and freedom in Europe, the chancellor has largely disappeared. All his predecessors would have done it differently.”
Scholz: “Coordination with partners is important”
Before his trips, Chancellor Olaf Scholz pointed out the close exchange with important European partners during the Ukraine crisis. “The close coordination between the European partners and with the USA is very important,” said the SPD politician of the “Bild am Sonntag”. “The goal is to convey a unified and coherent message to the Kremlin: A violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity will have severe consequences for Russia – politically, economically and geostrategically. All European allies agree on this. “
Scholz flies to the United States on Sunday, and there is a meeting with the US President on Monday Joe Biden planned in the White House. A week after the visit to Washington, Scholz travels first to Kiev and then to Moscow to be president there Wladimir Putin hold true.