Comment on the date of the new election: Scholz is making himself a puppet of the SPD

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung Comment on the date of the new election: Scholz is making himself a puppet of the SPD Jasper von Altenbockum • 16 hours • 2 minutes reading time Olaf Scholz on his way home from Budapest What is strange about the discussion about the date of the new election is that there are serious doubts as to whether there is enough paper in Germany for a date that is too early. Equally strange is the interference of the Federal Election Commissioner, who expresses the fear that the pushy opposition could ignore deadlines. Regardless of this, it would indeed be a sporting and not very Christmassy undertaking to hold the election in January. The CDU/CSU would have been better off with a date in February, even if it would then have been obvious to combine the new election with the Hamburg election on March 2. But that would have suited the former First Mayor Scholz and would have upset the carnival speakers in the Rhineland. The SPD's interest in the pension package There are considerations that, believe it or not, appear to be much more important than the need to finally bring about a stable and better government than the one that has now failed after three years of stalemate. But the election date should be based on this alone. Legislative needs to drag things out only arise because the SPD hopes that this will allow it to have a somewhat significant say. The fact that the pension package always appears among the projects that still have to be decided has nothing to do with the fact that there is an urgent need for action for Germany's recovery. At most, it is about the recovery of the SPD. Olaf Scholz has tied the flexibility he showed on the date to the opposition's willingness to compromise. This is the last tactical twist from a politician who must feel like a puppet of the SPD faction. If it were a matter of the matter, there would be nothing to speak against a quick vote of confidence. Everything that needs to be decided could still be decided. But it seems as if the SPD enjoys turning the terrible end into a horror without end.