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Olaf Scholz: Friendly leisurely
Photo: STR / AFP
After the first hundred days of his tenure, New York Magazine had the following lines about the President of the United States: “Biden's advantage is that he's not only nice but also boring.
He tirelessly implements an ambitious domestic political agenda [...] and hardly arouses controversy. "And further:" The Republicans cannot stop Biden because he bores them to death. "
It's not exactly the friendliest description, but the journalist Jonathan Chait didn't utter those words without mesmerized appreciation.
I couldn't help but think of Olaf Scholz, the man about whom the New York Times now also wrote that he was anything but exciting, a “career politician wearing a suit”.
The appearance of the candidate of the SPD is currently often compared with the all-round moderation of our Chancellor.
But I think it is even more worth taking a look at Biden's election campaign and his presentation of the unspectacular as a benchmark.
Whether deliberately or not, Scholz also implements the unobtrusive, communicative low-key strategy of »Sleepy Joe«, who - especially in contrast to the
negative campaigning
of Donald Trump, who presented himself as a riot clown - could appear all the more level-headed and trustworthy.
While Laschet's eager aggressiveness made itself felt at the Triell on Sunday and Baerbock also went on the offensive to assert himself, Scholz worked through his programmatic points politely and undeterred.
First criticized, then successful
That is the "asymmetrical demobilization" that we are already familiar with from Merkel: Scholz's statements do not lure critics out of their reserves enough to be indignant about it and to voice major contradictions.
The Scholz sleepwalker wagon always snakes past polarizing debates, for example about gender or identity politics, which enables it to contest an election campaign unmolested without constantly having to parry political attacks.
The apparently presidential
sleepiness
as a communication
mode
, which Biden first condemned and then recognized as beneficial compared to Trump, also works well with Scholz in contrast to his opponents.
Especially with media efforts to somehow get competitive moments out of this election campaign in order to be able to stage at least a bit of heat in the election campaign folklore, the conflict-averse calm of the social democratic candidate is clearly noticeable.
Baerbock must representative of the Greens as a new challenger in the political ring to prove that they govern
could
;
Laschet has to claim for the Union that it
can
still govern
;
But the SPD can work with the impression that they have always patent
could have done
- just have not got the chance.
Irritant evenness
And also against the background of the past two years, which were dominated nationally and globally by crises, conflicts and catastrophes, in a time that can actually be described as unbelievably stressful and chaotic, the unattractive uniformity of a political person's demeanor has something lasting.
To cultivate such a phlegm in the daily high-frequency trading of opinions and self-staging acts like a convincing form of present robustness.
You just have to be careful that voters are not sedated away.
But how do you attack someone like Scholz as part of an election campaign?
One possible tactic chosen by conservative parties and politicians: you pull out the red cloth.
Towards the end of the American election campaign, when the political attacks became more and more violent, Biden was forced to give an amused self-disclosure: "Do I look like a radical socialist with a weakness for rioters?"
more on the subject
The situation in the morning: »New York Times« blasphemed Olaf ScholzBy Roland Nelles, US correspondent
Dispute over red-red-green: SPD Vice Midyatli calls the CDU's red socks campaign "pure hypocrisy"
Election campaign: Merkel criticizes Scholz for evading the issue of red-red-green
Trump launched a red sock campaign on steroids. Shortly before the elections, he posted a video linking Biden to Venezuelan socialists. The rumored message: The Democratic presidential candidate brings communism to the United States. Trump was addressing the growing Venezuelan-American population in Florida, and his victory there proved that the false claim was caught, even when Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro said he opposed both candidates.
Biden was and is known to be about as communist as Scholz. And the absurdity of this red painting becomes even clearer when one remembers that the American "socialist" is still associated with negative connotations with the Cold War and the McCarthy era. But realpolitically, the things that are now labeled "socialist" by Republicans - so radical communist ideas such as health care for all - should not be translated as "socialist" but as "social democratic".
In a less drastic form, we
now
take the warning of political
red flags
in the Union too, when, for example, Paul Ziemiak sees Scholz as the personification of the hammer and sickle, so to speak;
And here, too, it becomes clear: the closer the choice comes, the more panicked the red painting.
Of course, I don't equate Scholz with Biden here (and accordingly not through the humorous ties Laschet with Trump), but his communicative attitude of friendly leisurely pace seems politically underestimated in these troubled times as well as promising.
We should definitely keep our eyes open here during the final spurt of the election campaign - if only to prevent us from falling asleep.