Chancellor Olaf Scholz at Maischberger: Everyone has memory gaps!

2023-06-28 22:03:33
HomePoliticsChancellor Olaf Scholz at Maischberger: Everyone has memory gaps!

The moderator questioned the chancellor on so many topics that hardly anything was discussed in detail. Self-criticism was a foreign word for Scholz.

Torsten Wahl

Chancellor Olaf Scholz at “Maischberger” (archive image)WDR/dpa

In a week that was dominated by the first AfD victory in a district election and while the Alternative for Germany overtakes the SPD in polls, Sandra Maischberger simply let the Chancellor tick off the topic in her summer interview.

Scholz rejected the allegations that disputes in the traffic light government were the main reason for the strengthening of the AfD. The deselected Sonneberg CDU district administrator, for example, explained this in a single player. If you give the impression that this motivates people to vote for AfD, “then you make the topic a bit very, very easy,” explained Scholz. Scholz admitted that the quarrels in the coalition with the Greens and FDP did not make a good impression and would also be reflected. But he added: “The challenge we face in this regard is deeper.” Above all, you have to strive to ensure that there is a good future for everyone in the country and that you show mutual respect.

After AfD victory in Sonneberg: Now the Ossis are crying again

Before the parliamentary summer break, ARD and ZDF have been conducting their traditional summer interviews with top politicians for decades. ARD will begin its round next week with a conversation with Olaf Scholz, who will answer questions from Tina Hassel and Matthias Deiß on the terrace of the Marie-Lüders-Haus. The Chancellor will then be questioned on ZDF in mid-August.

Scholz used to call NATO aggressive-imperialist

Basically, it was a typical ARD duplication when Sandra Maischberger asked the Chancellor to come to the studio in Adlershof just a week before and questioned him for an hour. The show was recorded in the late afternoon. Only in her very first question did the talk show host actually get her guest to admit a personal error. But this was also an easy exercise. Because a photo was displayed of the then 25-year-old deputy Juso chairman Scholz, who had criticized NATO at demonstrations in 1983 as an “aggressive imperialist association”. Of course, a long-time member of the government must have given up this attitude long ago – but the hostess was not interested in Olaf Scholz’s path to knowledge.

For almost twenty minutes, Sandra Maischberger questioned the Chancellor about the war in Ukraine, wanting to know, among other things, whether he had been informed about the weekend’s coup in good time, whether he would have liked the rebels to win and whether Germany had asked Ukraine too late had delivered weapons. Scholz was not tempted to make military forecasts – except that the war could go on for a long time, so support for Ukraine must be long-term. The weapons were even delivered “very quickly”. “Fast by German standards,” Sandra Maischberger replied with a sneer, almost as if she were a convinced bellicose and as if the rushed pace was the only right thing to do when it came to such serious decisions.

Ironically, the Maischberger editorial team made the wretch Donald Trump the key witness for the widespread claim that Germany had become too dependent on Russian energy supplies. Olaf Scholz also let this accusation bounce off. Because he supported the construction of the Nord Stream routes, but at the same time promoted the construction of LNG terminals on the North Sea coast as Hamburg’s mayor. This is the only reason why Germany was able to switch to other suppliers so quickly. “Nobody expected that we would be able to do this so quickly,” said Scholz, praising himself and the government’s policy.

Olaf Scholz on the fight against the climate crisis: “We can do it!”

“We can do it!” – that was his mantra when it came to saving the climate, his variant of Angela Merkel’s “We can do it!” The necessary laws have been passed, the backlog in the construction of wind turbines will certainly be made up for, and the German economy will retain their strength – no matter what “right-wing populist bad mood parties” would prophesy. The most recent “skilled worker immigration law” is the “most modern in the world”, will remedy the labor shortage, stabilize the pension system and contribute to prosperity. He also defended his rather flippant, often criticized joke on the subject of migration, namely that Germany must have a large beach on the Mediterranean Sea, and explained it with the fact that more refugees are registered here than in the Mediterranean countries. But now the EU has found a “solidarity mechanism” for fairer distribution.

“We can do it”: About what @Chancellor Olaf #Scholz speaks exactly – afterwards from 10:50 p.m. in the #maischberger extra! pic.twitter.com/bORyHFti9Y

— Maischberger (@maischberger) June 28, 2023

Hostess Sandra Maischberger became increasingly resigned as the show progressed, trying to get the chancellor to approach self-criticism, ticking off one topic after the other. The recent electoral successes of the AfD were only touched upon, but not discussed at all. Some of Maischberger’s attempts seemed dishonest, such as the question of whether the members of the government absolutely needed an inflation adjustment of 3,000 euros. Because even high-ranking employees of public broadcasting are known to be reluctant to give up financially.

Olaf Scholz didn’t even show any weakness in the question and answer session with completing sentences. He continued the sentence “A chancellor with memory lapses is …” with “unavoidable!” After all, everyone has memory lapses, he emphasized and asked Maischberger provocatively: “Or do you remember what you did when you were seven and a half?” The question was aimed of course, on his strange testimony in the cum-ex scandal – and the bankers were not sitting opposite a seven-and-a-half-year-old. Olaf Scholz praised himself as “the chancellor who communicates the most” – but on some points he got through with stubborn silence and refusals. (with dpa)