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In an interview with the German Press Agency: Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD)
Photo: Michael Kappeler / dpa
The current Chancellor, Olaf Scholz (SPD), was a minister in two of her cabinets. In an interview, he fundamentally defended his predecessor Angela Merkel's (CDU) policy of reconciliation with Russia.
"The attempt at reconciliation can never be wrong, and neither can the attempt to get along peacefully," said Scholz in an interview with the German Press Agency.
»I see myself close to my predecessor.«
The SPD politician took a very different view of energy policy towards Russia in recent years.
"But it was a mistake in German economic policy that we concentrated our energy supply too much on Russia without building the necessary infrastructure so that we could quickly change course if the worst came to the worst," he said.
As Hamburg's mayor, however, he himself campaigned for the construction of liquid gas terminals on the north German coast to fill this gap.
"Now we have to catch up quickly."
When asked whether that meant that he hadn't made any mistakes in Russia policy, but Merkel had, Scholz said: "That is an inadmissible shortening of my answer.
I always worked well with the former Chancellor, and I see no reason to question that in retrospect.«
Scholz defended Nord Stream 2 as a "private-sector project"
Scholz was Merkel's vice chancellor and finance minister for almost four years from 2018 to 2021 and was also a member of her cabinet between 2007 and 2009 as labor minister.
Even after he was sworn in as chancellor, he still defended the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline as a “private business project” and described the official decision to commission it as “completely apolitical”.
He only pulled the ripcord two days before the start of the Ukraine war.
Two weeks ago, Merkel defended her much-criticized Russia policy in a first interview after she was handed over to Scholz and refused an apology.
In an interview with the editorial network Germany published on Saturday, she reiterated this attitude – also with regard to energy policy.
"I didn't believe in change through trade, but in connection through trade with the world's second most nuclear power," she said.
But it wasn't an easy decision.
"The thesis at the time was: When Nord Stream 2 is in operation, Putin will no longer supply gas through Ukraine or will even attack it." However, the West made sure that gas was still routed through Ukraine.
"At the time, the German economy opted for pipeline gas transport from Russia because it was economically cheaper than liquid gas from Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates and later also from the USA," explained Merkel.
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