2024-09-09 14:27:32
Chancellor is angry
“You couldn’t see anything because of all the gunpowder smoke”
Updated on 07.09.2024Reading time: 3 min.
Despite criticism within the party and the recent election debacle, Olaf Scholz is sticking to his candidacy for chancellor in 2025. He is aiming for another SPD-led federal government – and is criticizing the traffic light coalition and the media.
Even after the recent election debacles and despite criticism within the party, Chancellor Olaf Scholz is sticking to his candidacy for chancellor in the 2025 federal election. He is “firmly counting on the SPD and I receiving such a strong mandate in 2025 that we will also lead the next government,” the SPD politician told the “Tagesspiegel”.
“Governing is not getting any easier, so we should do it,” said the Chancellor. His goal is “an SPD-led federal government.” When asked whether the thought of four more years of a traffic light government was not wearing him down, Scholz replied: “I am a runner and I have good fitness. You need that too.”
He is worried that there will be “many implausible proposals” before the next election. “An honest and truthful view of reality can quickly get lost in that.”
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With regard to poor poll ratings, Scholz said he had decided a long time ago never to comment on polls. He takes note of them. “But basing politics on polls is never a good idea. Incidentally, I have won several elections in my political life even though polls did not suggest this.”
Last Sunday, the SPD achieved its worst election results to date in Thuringia and Saxony, with 6.1 and 7.3 percent respectively. The result in Thuringia was actually the worst ever in a state election.
Regarding the formation of a government in the two states, Scholz said: “The times are over when a large and a small party usually form a government.” Our society and the political landscape have changed, the Chancellor continued. “Increasingly, parties that never actually intended to do so are governing together.” The traffic light parties managed to form a federal government in 2021, “even if it was laborious – and has remained so ever since.” However, he expects “that the government will stay together in this constellation for the entire legislative period.”
Scholz also criticized the traffic light coalition: The government must accept the criticism that “many decisions were accompanied by fierce public disputes – because of all the gun smoke, sometimes you could no longer see what was actually being decided.” He criticized the public dispute of the traffic light coalition. “The government must take responsibility for this, as has been said several times now.”
The problem is also that citizens rarely find out what is really at stake in political discussions. “Too often, the only thing reported is: Who acts like this? Who behaves badly? Who looks pretty or who expresses themselves particularly cleverly? But we are not doing a new episode of “Good Times, Bad Times” here – it is about politics,” said Scholz.
According to the current ZDF political barometer, a clear majority of Germans are dissatisfied with the government work of the traffic light coalition. A full 71 percent – or almost three out of four respondents – said that they had a negative opinion of the performance of the SPD, Greens and FDP so far. Only 25 percent were satisfied.
When asked whether he would let Defense Minister Boris Pistorius run for chancellor if he came to the conclusion that the SPD would have a better chance with him, the Chancellor replied: “Boris Pistorius, like many others, wants me to run for chancellor again. I see it exactly the same way.”