Scholz insults Chialo: Journalist present with new details - Scholz is also said to have been abusive towards journalists

Berliner Morgenpost Scholz insults Chialo: Journalist present with new details - Scholz is also said to have been abusive towards journalists Felix Müller, Jan Dörner • 3 hours • 6 minutes reading time Olaf Scholz is said to have insulted Berlin's Senator for Culture Joe Chialo The Chancellor is accused of racism Scholz is also said to have been abusive towards journalists Scholz and Chialo spoke on the phone on Wednesday evening A few days before the federal election, Chancellor Olaf Scholz is facing accusations of racism. The SPD politician is said to have called Berlin's Senator for Culture Joe Chialo a "court jester" at a private birthday party. When asked by this editorial team, Chialo only confirmed that there had been an "incident". The Bonn-born son of a diplomatic family from Tanzania did not provide any details. "He will not comment on this," said a spokesman for the Senate Department for Culture. The trigger for the fierce criticism of Scholz was a report by the magazine "Focus". According to the report, Scholz said to Chialo at the private party when the topic was a possible collaboration between the CDU and the AfD on migration policy and possible racism in the ranks of the Christian Democrats: "Every party has its court jester." Chialo is a fig leaf for the CDU. The reason for the party was the birthday of the entrepreneur Harald Christ. According to information from the Berliner Morgenpost, which, like this editorial team, belongs to the FUNKE media group, it took place in the Berlin Capital Club in Mitte. Olaf Scholz insulted at party: Chialo is said to have reacted "dismayed and speechless" The author of the report is "Focus" editor-in-chief Georg Meck. Meck reported on Wednesday that Chialo had reacted "dismayed and speechless". Meck said he was standing between Scholz and Chialo during the conversation. He then called Chialo to reassure him that he had not been misled by the scene. Scholz is said to have called Berlin's Senator for Culture Joe Chialo a "court jester". As "Focus" further reports, Scholz is also said to have been abusive towards journalists present. "There (editor's note: at the party) he scolded a public service executive (who did not want to comment) with the words: 'Shut up' - followed by an even more rude remark. He accused other colleagues of making themselves cheap tools of publishers or, better still: the CDU press office," it was said on Thursday. One of the journalists is said to be Paul Ronzheimer from the "Bild" newspaper. He confirmed this in his podcast. Ronzheimer also said that there had been a heated debate between him and Scholz about the "Bild"'s supposedly CDU-friendly and Scholz-critical reporting. The atmosphere was "extremely charged". However, Ronzheimer did not consider the remark that was then made in Chialo to be racist. The Chancellor also did not use a racist formulation that appeared in the "Focus" report. For the Chancellor, the debate about the incident comes at an inopportune time. Less than two weeks before the federal election, his SPD is far behind the Union with its candidate for chancellor, Friedrich Merz (CDU), in the polls. The Social Democrats' hoped-for comeback has so far failed to materialize. With the Union and AfD's joint migration vote in the Bundestag, Scholz's strategists believed they had finally found a way to weaken the opposition leader. CDU vice-chair accuses Scholz of racist remark The accusations of racism could now cast a shadow over the rest of the Chancellor's election campaign. Deputy CDU chairwoman Karin Prien recalled how, before the last federal election in 2021, the then Union candidate for chancellor, Armin Laschet, was "media-executed" after an inappropriate laugh in the flood area. Laschet, who was initially leading in the polls, lost the election at the time and Scholz became Chancellor. For Scholz, “that must have been it with this racist statement” to Chialo, explained Prien with a view to the election on February 23. What remains of the Chancellor: “No self-control, no sensitivity, no sense of wrongdoing, no decency.”