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Olaf Scholz: new voice color
Photo: CLEMENS BILAN / EPA
In a previous life, not so long ago, I wrote secretly for other people, as a ghost writer.
One of the biggest challenges is getting the sound of the person you're writing lyrics or speeches for.
That's why I always sit up and take notice when I hear a change in tone in the tone of those in government - as is the case with Olaf Scholz.
During the election campaign last year everything was rather calm and well-tempered, the sharp and booming tones came from other voices.
After the election, there was a somewhat longer phase of acoustic restraint and silence - it became so loud that Scholz temporarily mutated into a hidden object joke on social media.
The sound-of-silence mode may also have been particularly noticeable because we were no longer used to the quiet treading of a purring government apparatus after the many horns, trumps and tweets.
But it became a communicative problem because the accusation could also be raised that the SPD in particular had not announced a clear position on Russia.
But then, in view of the greatest geopolitical challenge at the moment and the most important foreign policy date of his term of office to date, the chancellor was suddenly heard with a new tone of voice: determination.
Is it maybe because he now speaks English too?
In the CNN interview, edgy words bubbled out of Scholz with surprising courage.
With paratactic assertiveness he says about Gerhard Schröder: »He is not speaking for the government.
He is not working for the government.
He is not the government.
I am the chancellor now.« The rhythm of the sentence alone immediately puts the listener in a driving marching feeling that rushes straight ahead - a direction that one would not have thought Scholz capable of in this form.
more on the subject
Scholz and the language: In English, please! An interjection by Melanie Amann
Speaking of more resolute and concise: in addition to the usual Olaf Scholz, Chancellor Olaf Scholz has had a new Twitter account since February 13.
The fresh sound of a new Chancellor clarity can now also be heard there on this Twitter channel.
He tweeted two days ago, quoting his well-formulated speech in Moscow: »I made it clear to President #Putin in Moscow that for us in Germany and Europe, sustainable security cannot be achieved against Russia, but only with it.
Courageous action is now required from everyone.
It is our damned duty to stand up for peace.«
"Damned duty," oh ha, he says quite gently in the spoken word of his speech.
But of course it reads like a full chord in mezzoforte.
Scholz's tonal change also goes hand in hand with a new sound by the German government towards Russia, continuing the willfully discordant tones that Angela Merkel launched in her crystal-clear speech back in 2014, when she clearly condemned Vladimir Putin and declared an affiliation with the Crimea to Russia means a clear breach of international law and is not acceptable.
In his book Germany's Russia problem: The struggle for balance in Europe, analyst and former NATO official John Lough considers the complicated historical and economic ties between the two countries, which are still evident in communications between Putin and Scholz today. to the fact that Scholz would not tolerate a PCR test performed by a Russian doctor.
The visit of right-wing extremist Brazilian President and anti-vaccinationist Jair Bolsonaro showed that Putin can currently be received more closely.
As reported by the media, he endured five tests at the same time.
Lough explains that for more than twenty years German governments have pursued a consistent but ineffective policy towards Moscow "based on the belief that a combination of expanded economic ties and the widest possible dialogue with government and society would help put Russia on a path of reform that would lead to his acceptance into the family of like-minded democratic European nations.«
In its dogged pursuit of a "strategic partnership," Germany unwittingly supported the emergence of a Russian regime hostile to its interests and values.
The analyst concludes: »In other words: German policy has not only failed.
She was counterproductive.«
The annexation of Crimea forced a change in this relationship, which translated into an aggravated tone.
Nevertheless, it was not just the spoken word, but Merkel's actions that sent the decisive communicative signals;
by getting the quarreling EU members together at (another) long table to discuss sanctions and establishing the Normandy format with Russia, Ukraine and France.
She set a tone with her diplomatic orchestration.
Scholz still has to get in the mood for his.
The only question is: as a diplomat and conductor or as a composer and crisis chancellor?
We listen spellbound.