Rhetorically superior?

Habeck amazes with a new style - and makes Scholz look pale

Created: 05/22/2022, 06:25

By: Stephanie Munk

Easy going: Robert Habeck represents a modern type of politician.

© Michael Kappeler/dpa

During the Ukraine crisis, Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck managed to explain his politics like no other.

He can score points with the people - and is the stark contrast to Scholz.

Berlin - "If Olaf Scholz started talking like Robert Habeck, everyone would think it was carnival," said SPD Secretary General Kevin Kühnert on Saturday

in an interview with the

.

And it's true: Germany's chancellor and deputy chancellor could not be more different in their communication.

However, only one of them is currently doing really well with the Germans - namely Robert Habeck.

Olaf Scholz relies on a very classic style of communication: factual, matter-of-fact, without great emotion - even on very dramatic topics such as the Ukraine conflict.

Critics say: His performances seem stiff and empty of content.

Robert Habeck, on the other hand, appears empathetic, relaxed and down-to-earth.

He is not afraid of feelings: in TV talks he was close to tears not only once.

One does not lean too far out of the window when one says: Habeck is doing better in the current crisis.

According to the ZDF political barometer of May 20, the Green Economics Minister is the most popular member of the federal government - far more popular than SPD politician Olaf Scholz.

And that is also due to his new style of politics.

Robert Habeck: He acts like one of us - only with more responsibility on his shoulders

This became particularly clear in a video that Habeck posted shortly before the Bundestag gave its historic go-ahead for the delivery of heavy weapons to Ukraine.

The 52-year-old spoke into the camera on a balcony of Parliament - as if he were personally explaining what internal struggles he was fighting.

Habeck described his inner turmoil, chatted vividly about a trip to Mariupol a year ago, remembered the people he met there, and presented himself as human and fallible.

Like one of us, only with hundreds of tons more responsibility on our shoulders.

Robert Habeck and Olaf Scholz: "Scholzomat" versus rhetoric role model

This is typical of Habeck: In his performances he usually tries to explain himself and his positions.

He speaks openly and comprehensibly, simply off the top of his head.

With Scholz, on the other hand, emotional words often seem like they were read from the manuscript.

He embodies objectivity and balance, but often seems vague and meaningless, which also brings him a lot of criticism during the great crisis of the Ukraine war.

Next to his Vice Chancellor, Scholz often looks pale.

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While the emotionless chancellor has long been nicknamed "Scholzomat", Habeck is even compared to great poets.

An article in Die

states that Habeck acts like a "late student of Heinrich von Kleist" and that he has mastered the art of "gradual development of thoughts while speaking".

Der

recently published an article entitled “Why does Robert Habeck seem like the better chancellor to many?”.

It says that Habeck is called the "Communication Chancellor" in Berlin.

His performances are shown in rhetoric seminars as illustrative material because they are so approachable and human.

"Scholz only appears as a negative example," claims the newspaper.

Robert Habeck: Nonchalance is celebrated on Twitter

Habeck is also regularly celebrated on Twitter.

The most recent example: a photo in which the Economics Minister is sitting on the floor of a train platform - cross-legged, scrolling on his mobile phone.

Except for the fact that Habeck is wearing a suit, a high school student could also wait for a late S-Bahn.

That goes down well: “I wish I had a politician like that.

Authentic, honest, ambitious,” reads a comment below the picture.

Another: "He is definitely one of the few in Berlin who moves on the ground of facts."

Robert Habeck: He has already been described as a "women's heartthrob politician".

Habeck also attracts attention time and time again when it comes to fashion.

Whether with a jute bag in the Bundestag, with rolled up sleeves and without a tie: the Vice Chancellor stands out from the usual suit wearers.

The fact that the father of four was sitting in the Bundestag on Thursday (May 19) wearing a white T-shirt under a dark blue jacket is even worth reporting to the dpa with the headline “Habeck casually wearing a T-shirt in the Bundestag”.

described Flensburg as a "women 's

heartthrob politician" and enthused: "With the well-groomed three-day beard and his messy out-of-bed hairstyle, he looks like a mix of George Clooney and Campino from 'Die Toten Hosen'."

Unusual picture for a top politician: Robert Habeck walks barefoot through the mudflats.

© Frank Molter/dpa

Scholz is also more casual than top politicians of the past - for example on his first trip as chancellor to Washington, when he sat on the plane in a mottled gray crew-neck sweater à la Til Schweiger.

But the North German will probably never be able to shine with great charisma, which SPD politician Kevin Kühnert also believes.

Scholz is "a brand with its Hanseatic sobriety," he told the

Every politician has his own peculiarities, just like other celebrities: "I can't take Heino's sunglasses away and Udo Lindenberg's hat."