After the “court jester” scandal involving Scholz: “You can’t object to this statement because it’s true”

Berliner Zeitung After the “court jester” scandal involving Scholz: “You can’t object to this statement because it’s true” Article by Sophie-Marie Schulz • 2 hours • 2 minutes reading time Publisher and taz journalist Ulrike Herrmann defended Chancellor Olaf Scholz on the ARD program “Maischberger”. Did Chancellor Olaf Scholz racially insult Berlin’s Senator for Culture? After Focus Online reported on an incident in which Scholz, armed with a wine glass, called CDU politician Joe Chialo a “court jester” and a “black fig leaf”, accusations and calls for his resignation were thrown around. The incident is said to have occurred ten days ago. A few hours after the scandal became known, taz journalist Ulrike Herrmann defended the Chancellor. However, she first had to look up “what a court jester is”, she says, and found out that court jesters were not common in the “16th century”. to 18th century" and brought the "people's opinion closer to the ruler in the form of jokes". "In any case, court jesters have nothing to do with racism," adds Herrmann, and follows up with a statement that caused confusion among the other talk guests. "But it's not the case that you believe that Olaf Scholz paid Mr. Chialo a compliment?" Sandra Maischberger asked, somewhat irritated. Herrmann initially said no and then explained that "you have to differentiate between an unfriendly insult and racism." She also believes she knows what the Chancellor actually meant: "What Scholz wanted to say was: 'Even if there are liberal minds in the Union, the entire Union is actually moving to the right.' There is nothing wrong with that statement, because that is true." Moderator Theo Koll and Zeit journalist Mariam Lau, who were also invited, were silent for a moment, then Lau took the floor. "If he (Scholz) had respected his counterpart, he would not have said fig leaf." Theo Koll was particularly bothered by the term court jester and left out the racism debate criticized by Herrmann. "I think it is inappropriate to call a political competitor a court jester." On the X platform, Olaf Scholz commented on the allegations and wrote, among other things: "The accusation of racism is absurd and artificially constructed." A day later, Chialo told Bild that the Chancellor had called him. During the phone call, Scholz is said to have said that he regretted that his statements had been understood as racist. Berlin's Senator for Culture took note of this statement.