Olaf Scholz, the disrespectful chancellor: It's good that it's over now

Merkur Olaf Scholz, the disrespectful chancellor: It's good that it's over now Georg Anastasiadis • 59 million • 2 minutes reading time The short Scholz era is coming to an end as undignified as the traffic light coalition ruled for three years. A commentary by Georg Anastasiadis. Munich - Let's put the racism club aside for a moment. What the chancellor had to say to a (dark-skinned) Hamburg CDU politician was degrading enough. He was just a "fig leaf" and the "court jester" of the Merz party, he said, attacking the poor man, whom acquaintances describe as friendly and approachable, at a party. When the story came out, Olaf Scholz's first move was not to pick up the phone to apologize. No, he preferred to hire a top media lawyer to take action against the messengers of the news. Scholz's "court jester" statement: The chancellor was already down with most citizens A hit in the election campaign? Not really. Scholz was already down with most citizens. But the political bankruptcy that the ruling Social Democrats have suffered for three years, in terms of migration, in economic policy, is given another facet by the chancellor's outburst. It is as unsympathetic as it is revealing: Scholz won the 2021 election campaign as a fighter for more "respect". But no chancellor has ever behaved as disrespectfully in office as Scholz. No respect for the Basic Law - the head of government tried to undermine its debt rule with such shameless tricks that the constitutional judges had to intervene. No respect for his traffic light partners - Scholz summarily denied FDP leader Lindner "moral maturity" after the traffic light break. No respect for his own party - instead of respecting their wish for another candidate, he stubbornly enforced his will to run again himself. In doing so, he humiliated the entire party leadership and deprived half of its parliamentarians of their seats. And, above all: no respect for the voters, who overwhelmingly wanted a different asylum policy and who, up until the Munich attack, were fobbed off by the Chancellor with staged outrage (about the Merz CDU) and candlelight vigils against the right. A chancellorship could hardly end in a more undignified way - the Chancellor does not fall alone Like a staggering boxer, Scholz lashes out in the face of impending defeat. Yet he had always warned voters about Friedrich Merz's alleged impending outbursts. A chancellorship could hardly end in a more undignified way. But Scholz does not fall alone. Rolf Mützenich, Saskia Esken and the other spokesmen of the botched Scholz era are all responsible for the mess that German social democracy is facing today. After February 23, Defense Minister Pistorius and - if he survives the debacle - co-party leader Klingbeil face the enormous task of rebuilding Germany's large left-wing people's party.