As if in a magnifying glass, the crisis in Olaf Scholz’s chancellorship was revealed in just one day. First he meets angry farmers in Cottbus, then increasingly frustrated comrades speak out in Berlin.
It was already clear before his arrival that the train station in Cottbus would be big for the Chancellor. But that’s certainly not how Olaf Scholz imagined it. When Deutsche Bahn wanted to open its largest and most modern ICE factory here on Thursday morning, Scholz was greeted by loud farmers’ protests. “If the farmer is ruined, your food will be imported,” Scholz can read on one of the posters in the driveway. And he gets to hear a lot too. Hundreds of farmers drive past the factory premises in a column, honking their horns.