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Olaf Scholz at Pinar Atalay and »RTL Direct«

2022-05-17T02:44:10.893Z


Olaf Scholz finally wanted to explain his politics to the people on "RTL Direkt". Interesting move - thanks to the sovereign moderation of Pinar Atalay, who consistently prohibited rhetoric yoga.


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Olaf Scholz and "RTL Direkt" presenter Pinar Atalay

Photo: Andreas Friese / dpa

The first five minutes of Olaf Scholz' appearance on RTL made us fear the worst.

Pinar Atalay had invited the head of government to an extra edition of RTL Direct under the question "Can the chancellor be in crisis?"

Scholz's initial remarks drastically suggested that he just couldn't handle a crisis.

And not at all in crisis communication.

When Atalay asked whether the historically poor result of the SPD in the elections in North Rhine-Westphalia also had something to do with the course of the federal government he led with regard to Ukraine, the chancellor flatly claimed that he had "felt very deeply" during the election campaign that his course "is supported by a large majority of citizens".

Olaf makes Om

That's the Scholz feeling of the past few weeks: his party is crashing, but the chancellor feels he's done everything right.

That's Scholz's escape from the world for two months: doubts and questions rain down on him, but Olaf makes Om.

But just when it was feared on the RTL talk that Scholz would indulge in his notorious self-conjuring rhetoric yoga, as with his other television appearances since the beginning of the Ukraine war, something surprising happened: he spoke.

He answered.

He interacted.

Or at least he tried.

What happened?

What had happened there?

Or was it due to the unusual conversational situation beyond all known talk formats?

With RTL and Scholz, there seemed to be two that needed each other this Thursday.

According to the management, the private broadcaster has been a »journalistic powerhouse« since last year, but despite all the announcements, conversions and journalist purchases, a new journalistic profile has not yet been identified.

RTL is still a fairground of colorful distractions and human needs - but that's maybe not the wrong place for a chancellor who finally has to bring his politics to the people.

That's why the RTL program on Thursday read: First "Farmer is looking for a wife", then "Chancellor is looking for people".

And you have to compliment those in charge of the station for how they managed to place the life situations of people who are otherwise discussed, for example on "stern-TV", before the larger context of the Ukraine war during the Chancellor's visit, without that sentimental or even cynical.

At the beginning, Pinar Atalay presented a Forsa study commissioned by RTL, according to which 68 percent of those surveyed said that Scholz did not explain his politics enough.

Now he had the opportunity to do the explaining in direct exchange with the "citizens" whom he always talked about so solemnly and without consequences on his talk show appearances.

It was an escape forward from the comfort zone of his media solos, where Scholz usually has everything under control.

Four people, four opinions

There was a steelworks worker from Eisenhüttenstadt who drove a heavy motorbike in his spare time and was now wondering where he could get fuel for the blast furnace and bike given all the embargoes and who also spoke of his fear that the war would continue through arms deliveries could escalate.

There was the native Ukrainian, for whom the embargo cannot go far enough and who, in contrast to the steel worker, really wanted to know where the announced heavy weapons for the Ukraine were now.

There was the single mother of four who didn't know how to get through the year with prices soaring.

And finally there was the insurance salesman who worried about how all the promised gifts to people like the single mother were going to be financed.

Four people, four opinions, and the chancellor right in the middle: there was no room for escapes into the abstract, for reciting soothing formulas.

It's not that Scholz didn't try to do it again and again, but Pinar Atalay always rigorously built herself up as a lawyer next to the speakers and followed up on their behalf.

At some point the question of the much-cited heavy weapons came up.

She was asked by the Ukrainian talk participant.

When Scholz didn't respond, Atalay warned the chancellor like a student who drifts off during an oral exam: "Mr. Scholz, more heavy weapons?" When Scholz then practiced Scholz Yoga again and hummed that everything would be done what is possible to support Ukraine, the presenter once again drummed him out of the self-incantation: "It's about heavy weapons!

Can you say whether the tanks will be there in three weeks?” And when Scholz replied that everything had been set in motion, she asked: “When?” Scholz was slowly starting to sweat, he said they were working on that Cheetah will be delivered, and quickly.

It went back and forth like that for a while – until Atalay finally brought the Ukrainian, whose relatives live in Odessa, back into the dialogue and asked about Scholz’s hesitation: “If you tell your mother that now, will she feel safer?”

"I don't underestimate anything!"

Scholz and RTL had made an interesting deal for the evening to their mutual benefit.

Apparently it didn't say that the chancellor would be spared.

He was able to score points in the conversation (e.g. when he thoughtfully commented on the long-standing dependency on Russian energy sources), but he was also severely confronted with the inadequacies of his policy.

Another question from Atalay to the Ukrainian: “Would you like Olaf Scholz to travel to Kyiv?” The person addressed vehemently said she saw it as a sign of solidarity.

Scholz pointed out that he had already spoken a lot to the representatives of Ukraine on the phone.

He added stubbornly, "I'm not going to join a line of people who go in and out for a photo op."

When the insurance man asked, dumbfounded, whether Scholz wasn't underestimating the symbolic character of such a trip, he only bucked even more: "I don't underestimate anything!

I made sure that the foreign minister went there .

By visiting the RTL hype, Olaf Scholz started trying to explain his politics to people on Thursday.

The beginning is done.

But there is still a very long way to go before it really reaches people.

Source: spiegel

All life articles on 2022-05-17

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