God knows, a day that wasn’t quite as happy for the Chancellor is coming to an end, but Olaf Scholz is already full of appreciation for himself again talked about the Ukraine war and its consequences, especially about the costs for the refugees. And the result, according to Scholz, is “a good perspective”.
The meeting lasted a mere six hours – what a difference that is compared to previous prime ministerial conferences. The matter was prepared very well, says Scholz. Around 300,000 people have already come to Germany and need to be taken care of. It was his wish that there should be “no public dispute” about the costs, said the Chancellor. “That succeeded.” That is something special, Scholz thinks, because it can be a role model for “what we have to master together”.
If there is any benefit at all in the fact that the chancellor is currently dealing with quite a few crises at the same time, it is that after a setback on one issue he can quickly bounce back with progress on another. It was also a prime ministerial conference in which Scholz, as soon-to-be chancellor, suggested general vaccination in November 2021. Almost half a year later, this proposal went down in parliament on Thursday without a murmur. Scholz will also comment on this at the end of the press conference, quite clearly. But now, of course, he prefers to talk about what he managed to do.
And Lindner rocks in the audience
In the refugee crisis of 2015, the question of costs was discussed with a completely different degree of severity, says Scholz, who was then the mayor of Hamburg and one of the negotiators for the federal states. It sounds as if the countries of Chancellor Angela Merkel and her Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble had to negotiate the euros individually at the time. The Chancellor can now give the impression that seven years later he and his Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) are showing the generosity of the federal government that Scholz would have expected back then. Lindner will have to provide at least five to six billion euros in its supplementary budget.
Incidentally, the Minister of Finance is not sitting on the podium, but between the journalists. Six times during the press conference, which lasted about 40 minutes, he looks at his smartphone, almost as often he smooths his golden yellow tie, twice he allows himself to yawn behind the mask. Above all, however, he nods to much of what his chancellor says, causing the entire figure of the finance minister, including the chair he is sitting on, to start a recurring see-saw.
Lindner only seems to get a little flowery when Franziska Giffey (SPD) praises him. The wishes of the federal states have “really been listened to,” Berlin’s governing mayor says, and the federal government’s commitments are exactly what was expected. Lindner may not only have thought that Giffey likes to talk for a long time, but also that he might have been too generous. In November, if you want to take a closer look at the development of expenses, it could happen that Lindner makes a little more Schäuble.
Giffey is only the vice chair of the MPK, the actual chair is NRW Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst (CDU). He gained a lot financially in the six hours with Scholz, but lost something politically at the same time. While Wüst was negotiating in Berlin, he lost Environment Minister Ursula Heinen-Esser in his state capital Düsseldorf. A vacation trip to Mallorca during the flood disaster last summer has been her undoing: resignation. And Hendrik Wüst, who has to pass state elections in a few weeks, can only hope that the damage to him and the CDU can be limited to some extent in this way.
No second attempt planned for compulsory vaccination
From this point of view, Scholz and Wüst are two partially bereaved people sitting next to each other and in front of the journalists, including Christian Lindner. The Chancellor is then asked to vote in the Bundestag on compulsory vaccination. Of course he was disappointed that there was no majority, says Scholz. He was still convinced that the duty would be right. Parliament’s statement was very clear. “There is no legislative majority in the Bundestag for mandatory vaccination. That is the reality that we must now take as a starting point for our actions.” Well, it was the FDP in the first place that got the chancellor into trouble. But its chairman reacts as if it doesn’t really concern him. Better check your smartphone again.
Scholz does not seem to want to make a second attempt at compulsory vaccination. The result was “pretty clear”. Then you have to respect that. The Chancellor now prefers to try to increase the vaccination rate in other ways. “We will do everything we can to convince even more citizens to get vaccinated,” says Scholz. Without compulsory vaccination. Christian Lindner rocks again.