The message is delivered as straightforwardly as only an Olaf Scholz can do. “Stay together.” With these words, the Chancellor’s New Year’s address should end on Friday evening. After 16 years in the reign of Angela Merkel, in the fourth wave of the global pandemic and with growing anger on Germany’s streets, the new Chancellor is courting confidence. “What I notice everywhere, that is a huge solidarity, that is an overwhelming willingness to help, that is a new move closer together and undercut,” says a manuscript of the speech that was distributed in advance and will be broadcast on television on New Year’s Eve. “We are embarking on a new era.” That could be called a bold interpretation of the situation.
The new federal government is in office for just three weeks, and it is still too early to take stock. What is difficult to overlook, however, is that the awakening for Germany that Scholz invokes is more likely to describe hope than reality. The three governing parties have so far been like a team that pulls a heavily laden cart but hardly wins any land.
Scholz wants to usher in the year 2022 – perhaps precisely because of this – with an encouraging speech. “We are at the beginning of a new decade,” he says. Ahead of the country lies “a time that will be good if we actively help shape it”. This also means hundreds of thousands of helpers, whether in the health sector, flood protection or the German armed forces, who have opposed the spread of the corona virus, but also devastating floods. “Together we helped, cleaned up and started the reconstruction,” says Scholz and adds: “And we will have to deal with that for a long time.”
The latter, however, also applies to the work of the coalition, which sees itself as a counter-model to political encrustation. The SPD, Greens and FDP have presented a coalition agreement that shows more ambition for reform than the previous governments for many years. Achieving the European climate targets despite the debt brake, earlier coal phase-out, consistent human rights policy, reducing bureaucracy, plus a higher minimum wage and restructuring of industry and society – Scholz calls it “a gigantic task”. The federal government also wants to make family and parenting more contemporary. If so, Germany will be a different country. But – is it so?
The first few weeks of government have sent different signals, and Scholz’s New Year’s address is also lacking in enthusiasm. This is probably due to the nature of the speaker, but also to the highly contagious virus variant Omikron, which threatens to push all reform projects into the background; nobody knows until when. “Please take these restrictions very seriously,” said Scholz, who used a large part of his speech on the increased protection against infection and an urgent vaccination appeal. “We want to have another 30 million vaccinations by the end of January. So that we are armed against Omikron.”
In the meantime, the noise is swelling on Germany’s streets, and it is directed against such announcements. In demonstrations against corona measures, fears of vaccination mix with contempt for the state and neo-Nazis among esoteric women and so-called lateral thinkers. The aggression is sometimes so high that Bavaria’s Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann (CSU) sounded the alarm on Thursday. Right-wing extremists infiltrated a number of marches. “They want to really damage our democracy, to attack the substance of our state,” he said in the WDR.
Federal Chancellor Scholz, however, finds gentler terms for the escalation. There are “different opinions”, but a strong community can withstand contradictions “if we have respect for one another”. In the New Year’s address he did not mention the general vaccination requirement, which Scholz had unequivocally promised his support a short time ago. To this end, emphasis is placed on moving closer together, also at the European level. Germany, which is now taking over the chairmanship of the G-7 states, will become a “pioneer for climate-neutral business”, announced Scholz.
The Corona issue, however, is likely to tie up the forces of the federal government for months and could soon face an internal test of strength. Some warn that you shouldn’t pour fuel on the fire in view of the radicalization in the country. Just don’t shrink back from attempts at intimidation, advise others, including in the SPD. Omid Nouripour, candidate for the Greens chairmanship, sees it similarly. “The lack of compulsory vaccination means that basic rights must be restricted for everyone, including the vast majority of those who have been vaccinated,” he told the Süddeutsche Zeitung. That’s why she has to come. The FDP assesses the matter differently in parts. The debate is postponed for the new year.