Olaf Scholz is back from vacation. Officially, at least, but he hasn’t returned to the full seriousness of chancellor life yet. A moment ago he was still at the children’s canal, now flowers line his way. Passing the garden snapdragon and mullein it goes to the park stage in the Erfurt garden and leisure park. It is a friendly place with fountains and turrets. In 2021 the Federal Horticultural Show took place here, but flowers were already blooming on the 36-hectare site in GDR times. For the evening, the Parkbühne is his stage, Scholz is in Thuringia’s state capital for the ninth time in a Chancellor’s meeting. There will be elections in Thuringia next year, and the far-right AfD is ahead in the polls. So Scholz cannot know whether the friendly backdrop is not deceptive.
Before Scholz arrives, the guests, readers of the Thuringian general, asked not to ask lengthy questions. The moderator assures that the chancellor is also urged not to “answer in epic breadth”. Scholz is actually brief in greeting, reports that he has “completely” hiked the Rennsteig in the Thuringian Forest. However, it “rained through”. There’s always a laugh, the audience doesn’t seem hostile. The deal with short questions and concise answers is then not kept by either side. From Scholz’s point of view, that’s not the point at all. He likes this format because he feels he can explain things. If you let him.
The very first question presents him with an excellent opportunity to do so. A tradesman reports who has doubts about the wisdom of the minimum wage. It’s good if people earn more. But the question is always how much net of the gross remains. And if people went to the hairdresser less often because of higher prices, nothing would be gained either. “Thank you very much,” says Scholz. The question suits him perfectly. The question of the minimum wage has occupied him for a long time. When it was introduced, the minimum wage meant a salary increase for six million people, Scholz calculates. And when it was increased to twelve euros, there were as many again. And of course, “You’re right, it has to come across enough net”. That’s why the traffic light “helped out” with tax cuts.
Scholz deals with numbers a lot, he always has an advantage there, but he also tries to convince. Sure, the prices would rise, but if you want your neighbor to get along well, you have to wish that he at least earns the minimum wage. Surprisingly, Scholz was not asked a question about inflation, but many requests to speak were at odds with the traffic light policy.
Why are nuclear power plants shut down and nuclear power imported from France? According to a mayor, people would not feel “taken”. The concerns of the pensioners, who are strongly represented in the audience, are raised several times, and Scholz is trying to disperse them.
Readers of the “Thüringer Allgemeine” were selected by lottery for the interview with Scholz.
(Photo: Bodo Schackow/dpa)
A lady announces that she has 24 questions in her pocket but will only present one. The chancellor and his ministers took an oath. “The government’s policy creates the impression that it has been forgotten,” she claims. Health Minister Karl Lauterbach seems to be serving the pharmaceutical industry, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock is “declaring war on the Russians, which is not in the interests of German citizens and Mr. Habeck has managed to ensure that the country shows negative growth”.
As far as Lauterbach is concerned, Scholz works through it, so the opposite is true. He keeps getting letters of complaint from the pharmaceutical industry. And Annalena Baerbock did not declare war on Russia either. “Russia attacked Ukraine for a very deep imperialist motive, they just want a part of the country for themselves,” explains Scholz. And as far as the economy is concerned, a lot is happening. Germany is investing a lot of money in the semiconductor industry. Of course, Scholz also uses this opportunity to spread “confidence” and make it clear that Germany is still a powerful country.
Only once does the big topic come up: the AfD
Quite a few in the audience just don’t reconcile that with their experiences. “You said that Germany is doing well,” says a woman who is wearing a pastel-colored floral blouse with a denim jacket. In “certain areas” she could agree with him. But in many places there is a lack of money. Youth clubs would be closed, the promised daycare places for everyone would not exist, and there would be a lack of staff in nursing stations. And when the “normal citizen” turns on the television, he sees Ms. Baerbock traveling through foreign countries, walking barefoot on the beach “with media impact” and handing out hundreds of millions. For the “normal citizen, who may suffer from these things, that there is not enough money for many other areas”, it is “difficult to understand”. Money is thrown away, “where Germany itself urgently needs money”.
After an hour, the elephant in the Ega Park is also called by its name for the first and only time. She doesn’t like to say it, says the woman, but the fact that the AfD is so popular also has something to do with it. There are, Scholz replies, “of course, a lot of things that you could spend a lot more money on”. It’s a question of priorities. There will never be enough money for everything on the list. Which of course is true.
However, he explains the fact that, after years full of coffers, the available money has actually decreased, rather indirectly. If Russia invades Ukraine, “we’ll have to spend more money on defense and we’ll feel that elsewhere.” Incidentally, money for development aid is not thrown out the window. When millions of people are starving and children don’t know where to go to school, one cannot be indifferent. Germany will always be “shared responsibility for good development elsewhere in the world”.
There are also questions to which Scholz has no answer. He also cannot explain why, as one woman explains, children’s hospices should be financially worse off than adult hospices. He wants to pursue that. Scholz gives a woman affected by Long Covid rather vague hope for less bureaucracy in drug research and a restaurateur who cannot pay her private health insurance with a pension of 900 euros, he recommends switching to the basic tariff. In addition to the interpretation of the world, the “Chancellor Talks” always include the citizens’ consultation hour. And if you still feel like it after 90 minutes and 17 questions, you can queue up for the photo shoot with Chancellor. Scholz has routine there. He easily manages six cell phone photos a minute. Smiling.