Olaf Scholz knows what is proper, which is why he responds to the moderator’s “Servus” with a smile and a “Grüß Gott”. Passed the first endurance test, welcome to Bavaria! Apparently, the Chancellor would have scored with a brief “Moin”. It’s true that it’s standing here in the Festspielhaus in Füssen, but outside over the terrace the guests can see Lake Forggensee and Neuschwanstein Castle behind it. Nevertheless, the first of 21 questions is asked by a native of Hamburg who has now been living in the Allgäu for some time. And then a visitor – severely annoyed by local speakers like Markus Söder and Hubert Aiwanger – certifies that she appreciates his Hanseatic restraint. Home game, you could say.
It’s half-time in the chancellor talks that Olaf Scholz wants to hold in every federal state. The eighth of these citizen dialogues took place in Füssen on Thursday evening. More than 100 citizens were invited, women and men, senior citizens and representatives of youth parliaments. The Federal Chancellor would like to find out what moves citizens in their everyday lives and explain his policy in direct exchange, as his press team puts it. Scholz himself put it more succinctly for his visit to Bavaria: “There are people who spend a lot of money on opinion polls. I prefer to do citizen dialogues.”
And so he fights his way through all the sensible and nonsensical concerns of the guests, about climate change, social security, the value of craftsmanship, the promotion of families and job opportunities for refugees from Ukraine. There are moments when the chancellor has to pass. A man from Füssen would like Olaf Scholz to instruct his health minister to ban alcohol at kindergarten parties. “It’s not up to the Minister of Health, it’s up to the organizers,” Scholz replies. There are moments when he helps with the short official channels: he promises a man who complains of deformities in children due to hormonal pregnancy tests that he will make an appointment with the Minister of Health. But there are moments when you wish the chancellor wouldn’t speak like the chancellor. The native of Hamburg wants to know why it is not possible to introduce a speed limit. “Because there is no legislative majority for it,” says Scholz.
The chancellor doesn’t stay at his desk, he takes his microphone and approaches the questioners, who are crowded together in a long circle of chairs. And yet there is a certain distance, the format is too much like a speed dating, so it doesn’t go into depth enough. The civil dialogue is particularly interesting when the guests ask personal questions, which – it was said in advance – is expressly permitted. At the beginning, Scholz tells the moderator that he went on vacation in the Allgäu last year and also rowed on the Forggensee.
Scholz would go hiking with Macron. Not with Putin
With which well-known personalities could he imagine going on a seven-day hut hike? He would take Emmanuel Macron with him, he would come too, he believes. The Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez could also keep up in sport, Scholz jokes. There are already some who are very nice, even in personal exchanges. Unlike others, apparently. With whom he didn’t want to go hiking? Wladimir Putin.
The question and answer session is over after exactly 90 minutes, there is no stoppage time. Scholz rushes to the lake for a chat with the local police officers, who have turned the Festspielhaus into a high-security wing. Then he stands at a desk in the garden on the gravel path, with the castle of the fairytale king Ludwig II in the background, and snaps his smile: time for selfies with the chancellor.