Scholz: Russia with war goals “already completely failed” – economy

The timing is thankless. Ukraine’s First Lady Olena Zelenska has just asked for more military support for Ukraine. The Polish President, Andrzej Duda, has just expressed his expectation that the German Chancellor will support the delivery of leopard-Main battle tanks to Ukraine already agree. In an extraordinary process, the EU Parliament has just asked Olaf Scholz to allow those tank deliveries. And then – how could it be otherwise – Markus Söder speaks up. “Germany has decided to deliver weapons. You can’t really explain to me why one tank shouldn’t be a problem, but another one should be,” said the Bavarian Prime Minister.

Now Scholz himself is on the stage of the World Economic Forum in Davos and has to live up to the expectations that the important and powerful here have of him. After all, he is the only head of government of a G-7 country who has traveled to Davos, and thus one of the highest-ranking speakers.

To the leopard– When it comes to main battle tanks, he says exactly: nothing. Not even when a Ukrainian listener asked him after his speech why he was hesitant about the delivery release did he go into the subject in more detail. Instead, he emphasizes that Germany is already “continuously supplying large quantities of weapons” to Ukraine, such as anti-aircraft systems, artillery pieces and armored personnel carriers. Scholz calls the previous military support for Ukraine “part of a far-reaching turning point in German foreign and security policy.”

From Scholz’ point of view, Russia “has already completely failed with its imperialist war aims”. For the war to end, “Russia’s aggression must fail,” said the Chancellor. Above all, the G-7 states would support Ukraine “financially, economically, humanitarianly and militarily” as long as it was necessary. Everything must be done so that Ukraine can become an independent, free, democratic country, a member of the European Union.

Scholz addresses the audience directly several times – that’s new

But Scholz is not only one of the highest-ranking speakers in Davos, he is also one of the more optimistic. The year 2022 has challenged the world like never before. “At the same time, we have changed things and made progress like seldom before,” he says. Germany, for example, made itself independent of Russian raw materials within a few months. The long, uncertain energy supply for the current winter is secured. And the transformation towards a climate-neutral economy is currently experiencing a completely new dynamic. “Not despitebut because of of the Russian war,” says Scholz. This triggered enormous pressure for change in Europe. In the meantime, it has become clear to everyone that the future belongs solely to renewable energies.

In the past few months, Germany has shown that it can be “flexible”, “unbureaucratic” and “fast”. He calls this a “new Germany speed”, which is also the benchmark for the forthcoming transformation of the German economy. And he addressed the company representatives in the hall directly: “Your company can measure us against that.”

And it shouldn’t be the last time that the Chancellor addressed his high-calibre audience directly – a stylistic device that he had previously used sparingly. Scholz first becomes clear on the subject of the shortage of skilled workers and immigration: “Anyone who wants to help us is welcome.” And then, quite frankly, he solicits investments from the participants of the Economic Forum. “If you ask me how and where you can invest sustainably and profitably in the future, then I’ll tell you today: Don’t look any further“, says Scholz, “come to us, to Germany and to Europe.”

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