Germany has a new chancellor. Center-left Social Democrat Olaf Soltz has been elected by the Bundestag as Germany’s new chancellor, replacing Angela Merkel, and will lead a coalition government with the Green Party and the neoliberal Free Democrats.
Who would have believed it when Olaf Scholz was first nominated by the SPD for chancellor in August 2020? Only in 2019, he was defeated in the battle for the presidency of the SPD. Not only because the party wanted an explicitly left-wing leader, but also because the introverted pragmatist had never won the hearts of the Social Democrats.
The SPD was almost erased
However, Olaf Solz, who took over as Germany’s finance minister and vice chancellor in 2018, seemed to many in his party to be the only heavyweight politician fit for the job.
The SPD, a junior partner in a coalition with the center-right Christian Democrats (CDU / CSU) under Chancellor Angela Merkel, was far behind in the polls. Olaf Soltz was nominated for chancellor in August 2020.
But for months, Scholz often mocked. For many, it was hard to believe when he announced his desire to win and claimed he would be the future chancellor. But the Stoic way in which he conducted his campaign, outwardly restless, seems to have been the basis of the new chancellor’s success.
Usually restless
Defeating without complaining, rising again and continuing fearlessly and never seeming to doubt himself – these seem to be the guiding principles of Olaf Soltz.
He was born in Osnabrück, West Germany, in 1958, but has lived for several years in Potsdam, just outside Berlin, with his wife, Britta Ernst, who is Minister of Education in the state of Brandenburg.
Scholz shows unwavering confidence. In his decades-long political career, he has experienced a series of upheavals, none of which have been able to get him out of his way in the long run. Even the parliamentary committees of inquiry into the Cum-Ex tax scandal and the Wirecard fraud case failed to do him much harm.
It was widely known that he did not make a good impression during the interrogation of the committee: he constantly claimed that he could not remember anything. But the ensuing public criticism faded due to a lack of substance.
Smooth and effective rise to power
Olaf Solz worked hard and persistently on the political ladder. In the process, he underwent a remarkable transformation. As vice-president of the SPD youth organization in the 1980s, he was known as a radical socialist who called for “overcoming the capitalist economy.” But when he worked as a labor lawyer with his own law firm in Hamburg, he learned a lot about how entrepreneurship and independent entrepreneurship really work.
Scholz was soon seen as one of the SPD’s most conservative wings – not just in terms of economic policy. As Minister of the Interior in the city-state of Hamburg in 2001, he took a hard line in the fight against drug traffickers, allowing the police to force them to give emetics in order to keep evidence. As general secretary of the SPD, he helped push for the controversial labor market reform “Agenda 2010” by Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder against the will of many comrades of the left party.
No emotional appearance
Due to his repetitive and technocratic way of speaking, he was nicknamed “Scholzomat” at the time, a game with the German word for a machine. he said in an attempt to justify himself.
But that is only part of the truth. Olaf Solz is not a person who often shows great emotions and is not extroverted. Such an attitude seems foreign to him. He is a completely controlled person. Even in moments of greater joy, he appears as a British butler.
People who know him well and have worked with him for a long time claim that they have never heard him raise his voice, let alone shout when he is angry. When something upsets him, all he does is step from one foot to the other – and his ears turn red. This was the last time this happened during a live televised debate on television, when Scholz was unjustly attacked by his CDU rival.
Scholz has always been considered one of the most conservative in the SPD. This made it even more strange when left-wing presidents Saskia Esken and Walter-Borjans nominated him as the party’s candidate for chancellor in August 2020. Eventually, the SPD chose Scholz as its candidate for chancellor, although it did not want him as party leader.
When nominated, Scholz said he and the party leadership worked closely and harmoniously. “In fact, we started working closely with each other immediately after the election of the SPD presidents and this developed a very close trust, so that at some point I felt that both of them would propose to me, and both of them also felt very early that they should “they suggest me,” he said.
Such a proposition shows how Scholz deals with crises: he gets up, goes on fearlessly and never doubts himself. He seems blessed with unshakable self-confidence. In his decades-long political career, he has suffered many blows, but none that threw him off course for long.
But he is working to change his behavior, knowing full well that he must also be able to get his political message across. A week before the German election, he appeared on a popular TV show to make an urgent appeal to people to be vaccinated against COVID-19.
His appearance caused a great response on social media. Users said Scholz seemed more mobile than usual and seemed much more approachable.
COVID and foreign policy
Since 2007, Olaf Solz has held government positions almost continuously. First as Federal Minister for Labor and then as the Government Mayor of Hamburg. In 2018, he returned to Berlin as federal finance minister and vice chancellor. It is said that he had already targeted the chancellor when he made the last change.
During the COVID pandemic, it gained more influence. As finance minister, he was responsible for providing billions in aid to companies affected by the closure. He knew how to use it to put himself in the spotlight again and again.
“We will use bazooka to do what is necessary,” he promised in early 2020 when announcing bold and extensive financial assistance.
In foreign policy, Scholz advocates continuity. “Under his leadership, Germany would work for a ‘strong, sovereign Europe’ that would speak ‘with one voice,’ ‘because otherwise we would not play a role,'” he said. With the world population ready to reach 10 billion, there will be “many powers in the future, not just China, the United States and Russia,” but many Asian countries as well.
It considers cooperation with the United States and NATO as a fundamental principle.
“If you order leadership, you get it”
Scholz has said time and time again that Germany will be able to deal with the pandemic financially. The country will have a new debt of 400 billion euros (450 bio) by the end of 2022. Economic growth will allow the country to handle this burden, Scholz promised during the election campaign.
“No one needs to be afraid of this, we have already done it once since the last crisis in 2008 and 2009, and we will manage it again in less than 10 years,” he said.
In late 2021, however, it became clear that the pandemic was far from over. The new government will have to take on even more debt to support the economy.
Beyond the economy, huge challenges await Chancellor Olaf Soltz in many political areas. It also needs to manage a coalition of three, quite different parties.
And when he was forced to stop his cabinet members from the controversy, Scholz may recall a long-awaited statement he made when he took over the fragmented and disorganized SPD branch in Hamburg: “Whoever orders leadership from me will take it.”
This is an update of the article, which was first published on September 27, 2021.
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