The incumbent Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) wants to introduce her prospective successor, SPD Chancellor candidate Olaf Scholz, to international official business at the G20 summit in Rome. The Chancellor had invited Scholz to take part in the bilateral meetings that she was going to hold. This was reported on Thursday from government circles. It also said that the fact that the Chancellor is coming with her possible successor is “a gesture that is historic”.
Merkel will travel to the Italian capital on Saturday, where the heads of state and government of the twenty most powerful industrial and developing countries will meet physically for the first time since the outbreak of the corona pandemic. The two-day summit is expected to be the last international meeting of your chancellorship – provided that the budding traffic light coalition members of the SPD, Greens and FDP can keep to their schedule and conclude coalition negotiations by the end of November. If that works, Scholz should be elected Chancellor in the Bundestag in the Christmas week of December 6th.
The Chancellor’s last major international appearance after 16 years symbolizes both farewell and a new beginning. The heads of state and government are traditionally accompanied by the finance ministers at these meetings; As the acting minister, Scholz will be there anyway. Unlike in previous years, however, he will not only sit next to the Chancellor in the official rounds of talks, but also take part in the one-to-one discussions. Merkel and Scholz, as sober people, would not make much fuss about the joint appearances, it was said in government circles. However, everyone involved was looking forward to such a conclusion, which testifies to a great deal of continuity in the G-20 process.
Pressure on the Greens and the FDP
It is planned that Merkel will meet with US President Joe Biden, after which she will discuss Iran with Biden, French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Later there will be talks with other heads of state and government, including the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. How exactly the bilateral meetings with Scholz will take place was still open on Thursday. But it is assumed that the duo from Germany will be watched carefully, it said in Berlin.
With their joint appearances, Merkel and Scholz are putting the potential coalition partners Greens and FDP under pressure to come to an agreement quickly. If the traffic light talks fail – which is currently considered unlikely – the reputation of the Federal Republic on the international stage would be permanently damaged.
The agenda of the G-20 meeting was highly controversial until shortly before it began. The states, which are responsible for around 80 percent of climate-damaging Co₂ emissions worldwide, want to campaign for climate protection, but see its urgency differently. Germany wants to be climate neutral in 2045, the EU in 2050, Turkey probably in 2053, China not until 2060, India leaves one target open. Only if the states agree on an ambitious goal would there be a tailwind for the next world climate summit (COP26), which starts in Glasgow on Sunday. There are also arguments about a fair supply of vaccines, international supply chains and energy prices. The global minimum tax, which will initially bring Germany 7.8 billion euros in additional income annually, is to be finally decided.