How Chancellor Scholz made rearmament a top priority

For a long time, Chancellor Scholz was considered hesitant when it came to weapons for Ukraine. But now what was once driven is becoming a new driver. It is the change of a chancellor for whom rearmament has become a top priority.

The Chancellor really wants to have the tank grenade in his hands. When Olaf Scholz walked through the weapons factory halls at Rheinmetall in Lower Saxony on Monday, he didn’t miss a single tank. He and his people are also concerned with the images: Scholz and the war. These days it seems as if a new, changed Federal Chancellor is being formed.

“Our world has become rougher and is changing at a breathtaking speed. We also have to change,” said Scholz to the Germans on New Year’s Eve. And Scholz is apparently following the recommendation of his own New Year’s speech.

A saying like a musketeer

The Chancellor’s sound has changed: the long driven, the procrastinator, to whom the world owes the word “Scholzing” – meaning announcing without subsequent delivery – is now delivering.

“All for one. One for all,” he said like one of the Three Musketeers as he stood next to Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk in the Chancellery on Monday evening.

Scholz meant the NATO alliance promise. Germany will also help defend every centimeter of NATO territory. This is a chancellor who has recently stopped slowing down when it comes to more weapons for Ukraine and is instead demanding them.

And everyone, including Europe. “Not only the United States, but also all European countries must do more for Ukraine,” he said. The previous aid was simply not enough, said Scholz.

A year ago, Scholz emphasized caution

In Brussels, it was Scholz who appealed to the 26 other EU states to finally give more to Ukraine. No one can rely on anyone else to do enough. Just a year ago, the Chancellor emphasized above all care and caution and did not want to get carried away.

Now Scholz is driving himself. “Too little. Too slow.” He is now saying this publicly and is urging the EU, but also the USA. He just traveled to Washington. He did not appear as a hesitant supplicant who was not keeping his NATO commitments, but as a “two percent” chancellor who was more committed to Ukraine than any European to date.

“And this is urgently needed, because as harsh as this reality is, we do not live in times of peace,” he explained. But in times of war in Europe, that should mean.

Praise from the Defense industry

The Chancellor, who was strangers to both the Bundeswehr and weapons, has become a Chancellor who was now visibly happy at the groundbreaking ceremony for a new ammunition factory in Unterlüß, Lower Saxony. He consciously created images of the Chancellor in front of tanks and weapons as he stood at Rheinmetall and picked up tank grenades.

Just a few years ago, the praise of the CEO of Germany’s largest arms company would have been rather embarrassing for a Social Democrat. Things seem to be different recently. “Respect for having the courage to get the 100 billion asset off the ground,” said Rheinmetall CEO Armin Papperger about the special fund for the Bundeswehr.

The Chancellor liked the praise – and he looked even more pleased when Papperger explained that Germany was Ukraine’s second largest supporter. “Our country has thus taken on the leadership role in Europe that so many have always demanded,” said the arms contractor.

Sentences with the greatest Commitment

It once took Scholz eleven months to release the “Leopard” tank. At that time, Scholz listed every German self-propelled howitzer in the Bundestag as a justification for having already done a lot. Now he sounds different. A lot is being done, but that is not a reason for boasting, but rather a reason for concern. Because others wouldn’t do enough.

And recently sentences of the utmost commitment follow. “Germany will spend two percent of its economic output on armaments according to NATO criteria. And will do so forever,” announced Germany’s head of government.

“For all time” – that’s all. It seems as if the turning point in the Chancellor’s head that was announced two years ago is now gaining momentum.

Scholz as leader of Europe?

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj recently said in the ARD-Broadcast Caren Miosga, this Scholz has grown from Chancellor to a leader in Europe. “And that’s why his steps are now the steps of a leader,” said Zelensky, who said he would like to have Scholz as a friend at some point.

Scholz as leader? Perhaps his change of heart also stems from the fact that the Chancellor now has the name Donald Trump in his head and has an idea of ​​what could be at stake if the man were to take a seat in the Oval Office a second time. Scholz never says Trump’s name publicly, but everyone knows who the Chancellor means when he says: “No one is allowed to play or deal with Europe’s security.”

Scholz once spoke very carefully about the “unmapped terrain”, weighed things up and hesitated. Now the Chancellor seems to have found his ticket to Ukraine. He is leading the way when it comes to supporting Ukraine with sufficient resources.

Rheinmetall promises 200,000 Artillery shells

There is still a Joe Biden in the White House who is happy to accompany the change from hesitant to progressive German Chancellor. The fact that the Chancellor is now declaring Germany’s rearmament a top priority should not only please Biden, but also Defense Minister Boris Pistorius.

He sat in the front row at the Rheinmetall meeting and heard what his predecessors had been doing wrong for years. “For far too long, arms policy has been pursued as if it were about buying a car,” said Scholz. But tanks aren’t on the shelf.

Rheinmetall plans to produce 200,000 artillery shells per year in the new ammunition factory. “That sounds impressive,” said the Chancellor. But at the front, Ukraine is firing several thousand projectiles – mind you, every day, Scholz lectured.