Olaf Scholz: What kind of chancellor will number 9 be?

Have you practiced yet?

That doesn't come off the lips so naturally, does it?

It is remarkable that we Germans tend to grant our chancellors such long terms of office.

Helmut Kohl and Angela Merkel with their 16 years each and Konrad Adenauer with 14 are clearly ahead in the all-time table, on average a German Chancellorship comes to nine years.

For myself, born in 1978, there was only one head of government until I was 20.

And his name was Chancellor Kohl.

Fixed term.

Back in 1998, I found the move to Gerhard Schröder very beneficial and democratic.

And that's how I feel about switching to Olaf Scholz.

If one or the other may look back nostalgically on the Merkel years, then I understand that. But the concern expressed in some places about how things will go on without Merkel, no, I don't understand at all.

I will not miss Angela Merkel as Chancellor.

16 years of government are too long, a term of office limited to two legislative terms would be useful.

Chancellor of the Crisis

The pictures of the Chancellor election in the Bundestag this Wednesday morning will hopefully astonish later viewers - because the horrors of the corona pandemic may then be a thing of the past: How Scholz attends his election with a black FFP2 mask, like most MPs with hand-to-hand Congratulate handshake.

How surreal our reality has been for almost two years.

Scholz takes over this country in a crisis of the century.

The fight against Corona will be his first, his biggest, his most important task. Yes, for the moment more important than the fight against climate change (although you can do one without leaving the other). It will depend on his leadership how Germany will cope with the next, perhaps decisive, months of this pandemic: the measures against the fourth corona wave, the general compulsory vaccination against the fifth wave.

As the reincarnation of Chancellor Merkel, Scholz will not get very far.

Where his predecessor only reacted to the crisis, he will have to take preventive action.

Where she has hesitated to use all her resources as Chancellor

.

Like Schröder's predecessor during the Agenda reforms or with his yes to the Kosovo mission and no to the Iraq war.

And where Merkel has not communicated, Scholz will have to convince people.

Perhaps that is one of the more difficult tasks for him, who was once ridiculed as "Scholzomat" because of his robotic explanations and has now been renamed "Chancellor mat" by my colleague Jonas Schaible.

Scholz's success as Chancellor depends on defeating this pandemic.

Should he have to risk his chancellorship in one place or another for this purpose, then it is worth it.

Chancellor of the Confrontation

The end of the grand coalition enables new camp thinking in German politics.

And that's good.

There has been a lack of clear contrast and confrontational interaction between the government and the opposition that supports the state in recent years.

With the SPD in the Chancellery and the Union in the opposition, the right path can now be struggled to achieve the goal: whether in the fight against pandemic or climate change or in the struggle for social reforms. If we are lucky, the "confrontational nature of politics" (Chantal Mouffe) returns, and with it the

and the feeling of being at the mercy of one or that circumstance.

The fact that Olaf Scholz, Vice-Vice-Robert Habeck and Vice-Vice-Vice Christian Lindner want to understand their traffic light alliance as a project going beyond a legislature and thus strategically charge it can

only promote

this

. Seen in this way, this Bundestag election may have been a decisive milestone in retrospect: If the Greens had joined the center-right camp, this might also be a decision beyond the day. But now the FDP has left its traditional camp, a lasting effect must be calculated.

Incidentally, I do not believe that the FDP is automatically the less reliable partner of the traffic light just because it has switched sides.

From Scholz's point of view, the Greens are likely

to bring

the

with them.

Because this time you have elected Scholz as Chancellor, but in four years you would of course like to send one of your friends to the Chancellery.

Such plans are not yet known from the FDP.

Chancellor without God

Did you notice?

Not only Chancellor Scholz (like Schröder before him), but also Habeck, Annalena Baerbock, Cem Özdemir, Anne Spiegel, Steffi Lemke, Svenja Schulze and Wolfgang Schmidt

their

.

The future chancellor is also not a member of the church.

Enlarge image

Olaf Scholz takes his oath of office in front of Bundestag President Bärbel Bas

Photo:

Reiner Zensen / imago images / Reiner Zensen

But there is no need to worry, we hear from high places.

Irme Stetter-Karp, President of the Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK), assured the "RND" that even those who are not members of a church can

think and act in a

deeply

.

Well, we are reassured.

Whereby: It would be even more important

to think and act in a

deeply

way.

And anyone who is a member of a church can do that too.

Either way: Scholz, Habeck and Lindner have the necessary qualifications to govern without any higher beings, so let's just assume that.

Constituency of the week: # 61

Potsdam and the surrounding area are now the constituency of the Chancellor.

We

already introduced

you to the Bundestag constituency bordering Berlin with the awkward name

in one of our first super election year newsletters.

Enlarge image

Foreign Minister Baerbock, Chancellor Scholz in the Bundestag on Wednesday

Photo:

FABRIZIO BENSCH / REUTERS

Because (also) there

and

competed against each other.

Scholz clearly won the race, finishing well with 34 percent of the first votes ahead of Baerbock with 18.8 percent.

For a chancellor, however, there is still room for improvement.

Angela Merkel recently got 44 percent in her constituency in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, and that was one of her worse results.

Two of Scholz's predecessors even renounced the candidacy in a constituency: The SPD Chancellors Schröder and Willy Brandt entered the Bundestag via their state lists - Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia.

What the polls say

In the spring, when we put on this policy briefing,

.

In March, the Greens were at 32 percent, the Union at 24 - and the SPD at 13. Week after week, the polling institute Civey has asked this Sunday question for us.

At first the SPD looked like it was set in concrete at the 15 percent mark.

Then, a few weeks before the election, the SPD movement came into the polls.

And more and more movement.

In the end, the Social Democrats won the federal election with 25.7 percent.

Since then, the SPD has been able to keep its election result in the polls.

According to the latest Civey survey for SPIEGEL, the SPD has 27 percent, followed by the Union parties with 23 percent.

The Greens and the FDP are roughly at their federal election results.

The new opposition party, the CDU, is still looking for its chairman.

When it comes to Union supporters, Friedrich Merz is still clearly ahead of Norbert Röttgen and Helge Braun.

For the Germans as a whole, however, another candidate is considered to be the most convincing: »None of the above« with 35 percent.

Merz follows with 31 percent, then Röttgen (23) and Braun (7).

And another current survey - about the most prominent member of the government alongside Habeck, Lindner and Baerbock: Health Minister Karl Lauterbach.

Almost two thirds of Germans hope that Lauterbach will improve their corona crisis management.

30 percent don't see it that way.

He is most popular with the SPD and the Greens, but the supporters of the Union and the Left Party also rely on Lauterbach.

That was the situation in the super election year 2021

With the election of the new Chancellor, our newsletter series from the SPIEGEL capital city office for this special election year ends.

In addition to the federal election and its consequences, we have now provided detailed and compact reports on the state elections in Baden-Württemberg, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saxony-Anhalt, Berlin and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania in 40 issues.

It was a pleasure for us and we thank you very much for reading us.

If you missed something or want to read it again, you will find all issues here.

We will be happy to provide you with new domestic political newsletters in the New Year (if you do not want this, please click here).

If you would like to receive the news of the day from the SPIEGEL editorial team in your mailbox, we can send you »The situation in the morning - our compact news overview in the morning« and »The situation in the evening - news, opinion, stories - which was really important a day «recommend.

The stories of the week

I would particularly like to recommend these politically relevant stories from our capital city office to you:

• The SPD Chancellor alongside politics: Who is Olaf Scholz?

• Future Minister of Health: What to expect from Karl Lauterbach

• First appearance of the traffic light tips: The government speaks in riddles

Stay with us, best regards,