Olaf Scholz presents traffic light contract: Now he has to reinvent himself

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Soon-to-be-Chancellor Olaf Scholz: Merkel can no longer be a role model

Photo: FILIP SINGER / EPA

After these quiet coalition negotiations, there is a tendency to regard the impending political change as a minor matter.

Olaf Scholz becomes Chancellor, FDP and the Greens take care of the cash register, digitization and the climate crisis.

New government, old problems.

And now we switch back to Joshua Kimmich and the question of when he will finally be vaccinated.

(You can read everything about the results of the coalition negotiations here in the news blog.)

But just for a moment: Olaf Scholz will be Chancellor?

Olaf Scholz?

It's a fairytale-like development that is taking place right now.

Scholz, that's the man who seemed so hopeless six months ago that it was almost tragic to hear him speak from the Chancellery.

The man, whose party ruled for years on the verge of self-destruction, was eaten up by inner doubts as to whether the social democracy still fits in with the times.

But Scholz was so inconspicuous during the election campaign that hardly anyone noticed how he was using this to undermine the predictability of the political system.

Those who do not attract attention do not attract negative attention, and those who do not attract attention quickly become reliable.

That was his recipe, the chancellorship is his triumph.

Strategically, he is now well positioned with the traffic light. Scholz prevented the Greens from changing camp, at the same time he removed the FDP from the arms of the Union. He becomes the head of a government that is probably not very polarizing, which makes it difficult for the CDU and CSU to work in the opposition. But the phase in which it helped him to simply manage everything proudly ends now. The social democrat will have to change himself and his style if he is to become a good chancellor.

This is due to the office that he will soon have, but above all to the tasks that the traffic lights are now facing. Many of them are spelled out in the coalition agreement, but whether a turnaround in global climate policy will succeed, European migration policy will be renovated or the state system digitized, is only to a very limited extent decided by the indications in this agreement. The era of Angela Merkel has shown that, despite the most professionally drawn up coalition agreements, parts of the country can become a need for restructuring if there is a lack of leadership, the fire - and the will to make forward-looking politics. As much as Scholz had fun copying her diamond in the election campaign, Merkel cannot be a role model for him in terms of government policy.

The pandemic has revealed a tremendous need for clarity and guidance. It is irritating how little Scholz met this need in the end. In any case, he let the recent spread of the epidemic slip by so much that one got the impression that he had locked himself in the government district without outside contact. What he said about the dramatic coronavirus situation when the coalition agreement was presented was as correct and sober as if he wanted to become head of the Hamburg health authority.

But Scholz will soon be Chancellor.

If he wants to shape and tackle the big tasks of this time - the fight against climate change, against the social gap and for digitization - he will not be able to avoid doing the opposite of what he is known for up to now: fighting passionately.

And to expect something from the citizens.