Discussion in Potsdam – Juli Zeh accuses Chancellor Scholz of “daycare talk”.
Picture Alliance/Sebastian Rau
Audio: rbb24 Inforadio | 30.01.2024 | Carl Winterhagen | Bild: Picture Alliance/Sebastian Rau
Critical best-selling author meets weakening chancellor: In Potsdam’s Nicolaisaal, Juli Zeh tried to elicit his view of the political situation from Olaf Scholz. By Markus Woller
In times of turmoil in rural areas, this evening came with special expectations. Bestselling author Juli Zeh meets, in her words, the “most maligned man in the country,” Chancellor Olaf Scholz. Since her successful novel “Unterleuten” at the latest, Zeh has been considered a provincial advocate and in recent years has not spared public criticism of the Chancellor and the way many politicians treat the rural population.
Today she tries to start the conversation with a pleasant start: You also have to be grateful that there are people like Scholz who still want to do the job, says Zeh. For the Chancellor, it offers the opportunity to relax a bit: He speaks of the multiple crises of the past few years, of confidence and his trust that “if you do the right things, you will get approval in the end.” Where he gets this confidence from in view of the catastrophic poll numbers remains unclear.
This is the first moment of the evening when author Zeh and presenter Harald Asel fail to question the Chancellor’s answers. It won’t be the last.
Zeh accuses Scholz of incorrect approach
The Nikolaisaal in Potsdam is overcrowded. More than 700 paying guests from Potsdam’s educated middle class have to wait a while before Zeh gets to her point: the process of alienation from politics and large parts of society. She accuses politicians of addressing citizens like children: from above. This infantilization of voters is also demanded in the media. You have to “constantly look after the citizens, address them at eye level, pick them up somewhere – as if they were all lost children who can’t find their way home from daycare alone,” says Zeh.
She also accuses the Chancellor of “daycare talk.” He initially defends himself. He tries to avoid such phrases, said Scholz. “The ‘double oomph’ is yours, isn’t it?” Zeh counters him. The Chancellor laughs: “I’m proud of that too.” Sometimes politics cannot be conveyed in bureaucratic terms.
Juli Zeh, author and constitutional judge in Brandenburg
Program note
The event will take place on Wednesday (January 31st) at 7 p.m. in a special edition of the “Forum” program rbb24 Inforadio listen. A one-hour recording can also be heard there on Sunday, February 4th, from 11 a.m.
Zeh feels that workers are underrepresented in the Bundestag
Zeh sees a massive problem in this context as the fact that too few unstudied people are elected to the Bundestag. “It doesn’t look good on a party like the SPD if there are only academics there,” she says. Although academics can also credibly represent workers’ interests, it becomes a problem if they are only represented by people who belong to a different political class.
Scholz agrees, but insists that he can’t make it so easy for himself. Scholz does not want to leave behind the impression that politics is only made for a certain, urban, woke clientele. People forget that most members of the Bundestag come from rural constituencies and therefore have a close eye for this area.
Agreement that the shift to the right is not a German phenomenon
The AfD topic comes surprisingly late on the table for an evening that is supposed to be about “rifts and tensions in society” – through an audience question. You have to resist, says Scholz. The fact that citizens are standing up and showing that Democrats are in the majority is encouraging.
Both Zeh and Scholz believe that the shift to the right is not a German invention. There are similar movements all over the world. Zeh analyzes that this is probably a normal reaction to a long phase of change that often affects people personally and unsettles their identities.
The writer reports on her experiences from the village in Brandenburg where she lives. Few are right-wing extremists there, but many voted AfD. “People have the feeling that in the last few years, because they were critical of Corona, because they were critical of Ukraine, they were then very broadly slammed as one type of person,” says Zeh. These people would then say to themselves, “Then I might as well choose the others.” One viewer thinks that this is a relativization of what has recently become known about so-called “remigration plans”.
Chancellor has a relaxing evening
As so often this evening, Scholz listens carefully and agrees: You shouldn’t lump people together, you have to argue politically, especially with the people who are critical of the many changes that are and are still to come would face each other. Ask why this dialogue is not taking place or why it is not producing results? There is no such thing this evening.
In the end, quite a few listeners go home with mixed feelings. Many topics have not left the “meta level”. Specific current issues such as migration, traffic light disputes, citizens’ money played almost no role.
The Chancellor waves in a friendly manner to the rapidly emptying auditorium. He has been to more difficult events recently.
Broadcast: rbb24 Brandenburg Aktuell, January 31, 2024, 7:30 p.m