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Scholz on January 24th in the Bundestag
Photo: Jens Schicke / imago images / Jens Schicke
It was almost exactly ten years ago that an ambitious SPD politician threw himself into a memorable election campaign for the political center.
The man advocated a tough line on homeland security.
He made the President of the Chamber of Commerce his chief economic policy strategist.
And he made it clear that in future it will not be the ideologues from party headquarters, but he himself who will determine the guidelines of politics.
"Whoever orders a tour, gets it too" was the motto with which Olaf Scholz achieved an unprecedented success in the 2011 Hamburg state elections.
For the time being it was the last time that a Social Democrat in the federal or state level won almost 50 percent of the vote, and unless fundamental changes soon, it will probably be the last for a long time.
In the federal election in autumn, the top candidate is also Olaf Scholz, but that is currently almost everything that reminds of the furious campaign of yore.
The man who ensnared entrepreneurs and managers at the time now wants to tax them higher.
He remains silent when party leader Norbert Walter-Borjans and parliamentary group leader Rolf Mützenich trim the SPD on a radical-pacifist course.
And nothing is more important to him at the moment than his comrades, who a year ago refused to vote for him in the election as party leader, now offer themselves as a "truly social democrat".
The man who once wanted to make pragmatism the ultimate goal of his policy is the willing servant of the party.
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