Scholz’s appearance in front of the press: “You’ll never walk alone” – the second

When the chancellor comes to the summer press conference, it’s also about the nuances. He likes being chancellor and the traffic lights work smoothly, says Scholz – not without vanity. He tight-lipped on one subject.

is he coming? Or does he come without? The Chancellor comes without a tie. It’s the summer press conference, after all. But the light-heartedness of some Merkel summer press conferences in previous years in front of the capital’s journalists may not appear at the Scholz premiere today.

“I like to talk to her on the phone”

Olaf Scholz has been a guest at the federal press conference 33 times. Now for the 34th time as Federal Chancellor. Does he miss his predecessor Merkel? That’s the last thing he’s asked later, more than 100 minutes later. For a moment, the grin flashes across his face, which Bavaria’s Prime Minister Markus Söder once angrily described as “smurfy”. “I like to talk to her on the phone. But now I also like being chancellor.”

Gladly chancellor – despite crises, despite corona, inflation and climate change. And also despite a war in Ukraine, which Scholz sees as the greatest challenge right from the start. A terrible, unacceptable war. Scholz will say “Putin’s war” later, when he honestly talks about his visit to Kyiv, where he stood in front of the shot-up car in which a Ukrainian family died because Russian soldiers wanted it that way. The tone gets cutting for a moment, for example when Scholz agrees that German authorities will also do everything they can to hold the war criminals accountable.

When it comes to Schröder, you can hear contempt

Is Putin a war criminal? “He is waging a criminal war of aggression,” is Scholz’s variant of deep-seated contempt for the Russian president. And because the name of Gerhard Schröder is not far behind the name of Putin, the question follows: whether the ex-chancellor might not be able to help the incumbent chancellor again in mediating with Moscow. “I don’t know,” Scholz also lets contempt hear through.

So there is the Federal Chancellor, who – as a journalist later puts it in a question – is the Chancellor who is facing the greatest challenges since the Second World War. When will he make use of his policy competence as chancellor in the coalition? Scholz hesitates for five quiet seconds before answering the question of policy competence in Scholz’s way. “It’s good that I have them.”

Not a tip against the FDP or the Greens

But – and that should also be the message in these times of crisis: the traffic light coalition is working smoothly. Despite all the talk of trouble and friction, primarily between the Greens and the FDP: Everything that has been done so far is an overall achievement of the three partners, says Scholz generously. There is not a tip against the Greens or the FDP in 100 minutes. On the contrary. When asked if the traffic light would last four years, Scholz would later say that he even had a perspective that went beyond the four years.

So there sits a very satisfied Olaf Scholz, who is more than just a little bit proud of what his traffic light government has achieved in just under eight months, in addition to the small thing of a turning point. Two relief packages – 30 billion heavy. The third in the works. “That’s quite a lot if you compare it to previous years,” says Scholz. A lot of Hamburg understatement sounds through.

Link up and deal with the crisis

And because he apparently liked his formulation so much recently, he will say to the German citizens twice again today: “You’ll never walk alone” – “You will not walk alone through the future,” Scholz then translates right away how he understands state solidarity with all sections of the population, hooking arms and overcoming the crisis.

And as is usually the case when this Olaf Scholz becomes a state official, he quotes his role model Helmut Schmidt. According to the former chancellor, the welfare state was one of the greatest inventions of German politics. Scholz is leading this welfare state, which is now helping. Higher housing benefit, energy price premium, even more help for the socially disadvantaged, twelve euros minimum wage from October. The chancellor lists why, in his opinion, there will be no “unrest” among the people in the winter because of skyrocketing energy costs and high inflation. The Scholz answer is because he and the traffic light government care.

Scholz, the mastermind, smiles scoffily

“I know best what is right” sounds through – and that Scholz usually knows it better than everyone else, he likes to say himself. As early as December, when he was chancellor, he asked the Ministry of Economic Affairs what because what happens when there is no more Russian gas.

“Apparently no one has asked this question and no one has answered it.” Scholz, the mastermind, smiles scoffily to himself. But he was last Vice Chancellor, his SPD in the grand coalition partly responsible for the dependence on Russian gas: A journalist asks whether Scholz is not at all contrite. “It’s definitely something I’m capable of, although there are rumors to the contrary.”

Tight-lipped on the subject of a cum-ex affair

That’s the humor of a Hanseatic citizen, who always lost his smile during the summer press conference when it came to his time as the first mayor of Hamburg. The Cum-Ex tax affair and the recent find of cash in the locker of his party colleague Johannes Kahrs. Question after question made Scholz answer more and more narrow-lipped.

What does he know about the cash? “Nothing”. Where does the money come from? “I have no idea. I assume you know that better than I do,” replied an annoyed chancellor, who has to testify again before the investigative committee in Hamburg next Friday. “I’m looking forward to answering everything there for hours,” said Scholz, who could see how clear his joy at the ongoing Cum-Ex affair really is.

After almost 100 minutes, the chancellor’s premiere at the summer press conference ended. In which the private individual Olaf Scholz only got the news: “I have the impression that many citizens are enjoying the summer right now,” he said. She always only went on vacation after the summer press conference, presumably so that she could recover from questions from the capital’s press.