Germany’s Scholz, an Ineffective Chancellor, Leaves Europe Leaderless
Highly unpopular German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is an ineffective leader, heading a dysfunctional coalition that is floundering on the polls, while the right-wing parties grow rapidly into the frontrunners for the upcoming European elections.
But Scholz’s ineptitude is not just a problem for Berlin, but rather a continental one, since a strong Germanic locomotive is vital to propel the European Union into economic development and international geopolitical relevance.
The Economist reported:
“So large, rich, and generally weighty is Germany that nothing important happens in Europe unless its chancellor wants it to, and what the chancellor wants, she or he usually gets. Until now.”
Scholz has all the ‘right’ Globalist and Liberal priorities in mind (actually they are wrong), but his lack of charisma, what the Economist piece calls his ‘colorless and unimpressive’ figure makes him a reflection of the European decadence in the world arena.
“While the European economy stagnates, the hard right climbs in the opinion polls almost everywhere and Vladimir Putin’s rockets rain down on Ukraine, a candidate member of the European Union, Mr. Scholz is all but invisible. His Social Democrats are only the third-most-popular party in Germany, with a derisory 15% level of support. Most of his time has to be spent propping up his rickety three-way coalition.”
His ‘distracted impotence’ has left leaderless the European Union, that nefarious organization that Hungarian PM Viktor Orbán has called ‘a contemporary parody of the Soviet Union’.
“Germany has to be the driver, whether raising cash for Ukraine, fixing migration problems, building the capital-markets union, reforming the system so that Ukraine and others can be admitted, or preparing Europe for all that a Trump victory in November would entail.”
Former Chancellors like Helmut Kohl or Angela Merkel travelled and negotiated ceaselessly, and Europe prospered as a result.
Scholz, while a solid supporter of Ukraine, doesn’t work as a cheerleader for the cause.
But the German leader is hardly the only leadership problem in the old world’.
“The vital adjunct to a strong Germany is a strong France. Yet Emmanuel Macron, Mr Scholz’s counterpart, has become widely disliked at home; he lost his parliamentary majority in 2022, and struggles to get legislation passed.”
Macron turned his government to the right, disguising it with a young and gay former socialist PM, ‘charismatic but under-experienced’.
Macron was a self-appointed ‘champion of reform’, but his ability to influence Europe is all but gone.
“More crucially, Mr Scholz and Mr Macron are said by insiders to get on badly, partly because their personalities are so different, but also because they have irreconcilable views. Mr Macron favours more European-level spending, more independence from nato and America and a dirigiste economic policy, yet the flinty Mr Scholz agrees with none of that. Differences of outlook can be productive if there is a willingness to work together; but there isn’t.”
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