The Holocaust scandal surrounding Palestinian President Abbas continues a series of mishaps for Olaf Scholz, which is becoming an increasing burden for the chancellor.
Actually, the country needs a head of government right now who leads powerfully.
A commentary by Georg Anastasiadis.
A moment of lack of repartee or sleepiness in the evening after a strenuous trip to Scandinavia: Who couldn't sympathize with the chancellor?
But a German head of government must not hope for mitigating circumstances if the Palestinian President on German soil, in the chancellery, unchallengedly relativizes the Holocaust.
The trouble is there for Olaf Scholz.
The stupid thing about it: It joins a series of mishaps, affairs and unhappiness.
This is slowly becoming a problem for himself and for the country he governs.
Instead of leading powerfully, Scholz is struggling with his own crisis
The gas levy in Brussels just flew in the face of the traffic light government, and Brussels is unwilling to make an exemption from VAT – which is actually not surprising.
But instead of leading powerfully, showing the country the way out of the biggest crisis of the post-war period, Scholz is struggling with his own crisis, the past is catching up with him in the Cum-Ex tax rip-off affair.
The impression is growing that Scholz has not told the public the truth about his actions as Hamburg mayor.
The affair put a strain on the head of government, recognizable by his thin skin when asked about it.
The chancellor isn't coming into shape at a moment when the country needs a chancellor in top form, if only to tame centrifugal forces in its very heterogeneous three-party coalition.
Of course, the government came into office just before the outbreak of a war that caught the traffic light, like everyone else, unprepared.
That explains some of the jerking, also in the question of the arms deliveries that Scholz had been delaying for a long time.
But there is hardly an issue on which - especially between the smaller coalition partners - the scraps are not still flying: nuclear power, tax relief, speed limits, fracking.
The citizens, plagued by the energy price explosion, have enough worries of their own.
A government that is primarily concerned with itself is the last thing
