As of: February 12, 2024, 10:12 a.m
By: Christian Deutschländer
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Olaf Scholz appears unimpressed when meeting Joe Biden.
It's about Germany as co-leader in the Ukraine war and Scholz is unusually clear.
Washington – The fireplace doesn’t just crackle, it bangs, it blazes and makes noise.
Olaf Scholz leans to the left in his velvet armchair in order to understand what his host is mumbling somewhat indistinctly.
The scene looks so much cozier in the photos, the soft blue carpet with the presidential seal, the fresh flowers on the table, the statesmen leaning towards each other.
But nothing is comfortable in the Oval Office, not in the four minutes in which the press is there.
Three meters in front of Scholz and Joe Biden, in the other half of the room, 40 journalists are fighting for the best pictures, suddenly shouting their questions at the same time, until they are forced out of the office by the Secret Service.
Stoic Scholz in the Oval Office – Chancellor in Washington
It is a surreal moment, a strange US staging of world politics.
The most exciting thing at this moment is to look closely at the Chancellor.
Scholz does: nothing.
He just sits there, almost motionless, his right hand in his left, his feet on the carpet.
No gesturing for the photographers.
He says a few sentences to Biden in clear, precise English, Scholz can be understood even over the cracking of the chimney.
And when the hellish noise of journalists' questions breaks out, he just smiles.
Not annoyed, not ecstatic, more like: deeply unimpressed.
Silently hoping that the pack will be out soon because there is so much to discuss and clarify in the world.
The stoic Scholz in the Oval Office is the most memorable image of the head of government's trip to Washington, which is making headlines around the world.
There are many politicians who would be bursting with pride in this space overloaded with expectations, gurgling with joy at their own importance.
Scholz just hopes that the external events will be over quickly.
That there is as much time as possible in private.
Scholz in conversation with Biden – analyzes of the status of the Ukraine war are alarming
The situation is also serious.
Some say: It is one of the most difficult months in world politics, not only, but especially because of the war in Ukraine shortly before the second anniversary of the Russian attack.
Scholz notices this at every turn on this journey.
His world view has become bleaker and his analysis of the Ukraine war is alarming.
The fear of a defeat for the attacked country is suddenly real because the West's help is stalling and crumbling.
The 60 billion package for Kiev blocked by the US Congress is an enormous problem, and Scholz is increasingly annoyed by the lack of military aid from the major partners in Europe: Italy, France, Spain.
Olaf Scholz and Joe Biden in the discourse about military aid for Ukraine and the conflict in the Middle East.
© Michael Kappeler/dpa
Scholz makes it clear: “Ukraine needs support”
The Chancellor, otherwise a master of obfuscated phrases and evasions (“thank you for your question”), is clear about his circumstances.
“Ukraine is defending itself with everything it has.
She needs support.” More.
Much more.
“Now is the moment,” he says again and again, becoming more clear each time.
He also writes it, when his Airbus lands in Washington he publishes a guest article in the
Wall Street Journal
: He calls Putin and his kind “predators,” a drastic word.
“We must do everything in our power to prevent Russia from winning.” If not, we could soon find ourselves in a world that is “even more unstable, more threatening, more unpredictable than during the Cold War.”
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Scholz in Washington: Ukraine war means Europe at war
More threatening than the Cold War, in which the world was inches away from World War III?
Scholz has never made it clearer what he sees coming if Putin wins and moves on step by step - Belarus, the ex-Soviet states, then the Baltics.
So: Europe at war.
Europe will be abandoned by the USA if Trump rules there again and decides to stop aid and leave NATO.
Germany alone, he makes it clear again and again, can never stop this.
In less than two days in Washington it becomes abundantly clear: This is a different Scholz.
He was the procrastinator at the beginning of this war.
He did exactly what some European neighbors are now annoyed about: talking nebulously about help, supplying a little in the way of weapons;
so much so that Ukraine doesn't die immediately, and so little that there isn't enough for reconquests.
Scholz never forgot that significant parts of his Germans were skeptical about arms deliveries.
Weapons deliveries in the Ukraine war – Germany is the second largest supporter
In truth, he has moved far in the shadow of his dithering image.
But tanks were delivered.
But anti-aircraft defense, now the most powerful missile defense system, protects Kiev from even bloodier attacks every day.
Despite the tough debates about fighter jets and Taurus cruise missiles, Germany is now the second largest supporter of Ukraine after the USA.
“My government” has delivered “over $30 billion,” he calculates to the Americans in their currency, in weapons aid.
He mentions that his traffic light has just reached the two percent target, i.e. higher defense spending.
Scholz as co-leader of the West?
The Chancellor, who was never a straight talker, has thus slipped into a role as co-leader of the West.
With the prospect of becoming even more important, Trump should seize power again in the USA.
This is actually a bizarre contradiction to the situation at home, to the desolate traffic light that is teetering towards its end in domestic politics.
One twitch from the FDP, and this coalition is over, with Scholz in the venue instead of in the White House.
It doesn't suit the worldly Chancellor in the Oval Office, who gives the Americans advice on how to get billions in packages through Congress - but as a reminder: At home he is booed in stadiums when his name is mentioned.
Depending on the survey, up to 80 percent of citizens say they are dissatisfied with him: heating law, citizens' money, migration, keywords as a spark for citizens' anger.
His SPD is at 15 percent nationwide, in single digits in many parts of the republic, in Bavaria just under 6. “From crisis chancellor to chancellor crisis,” was the headline in the “FAZ”.
His own SPD faction is whispering about Boris Pistorius as perhaps a better chancellor and took aim at the chancellor in January, issuing dozens of critical, sometimes angry statements.
He had “promised leadership”, where was that?
The important problems are the Ukraine war and the Middle East
She comes, very slowly.
In spurts at home with the angry speech in the Bundestag, the answer to opposition leader Friedrich Merz, whom he mocked as a “mimosa” with a “glass chin”.
Finally fight and plain language.
Scholz would like to instill in the country that everyone should stop talking about the big economic crisis.
His interpretation is that there are problems with the global economy and a construction bubble at home, but he considers the great economic fear and the demonstrations at home to be a low mood, nothing more.
Tenor: Don't act like that, we have full employment and huge investments.
The real problems are elsewhere, they lie in world politics, they are about war and peace.
But not even his own coalition is following him.
For weeks he has been trying to dissuade the FDP and the Greens from talking badly about the situation and their own government.
Unsuccessful.
Biden thanks Scholz for his leadership in Europe
It's a strange mismatch, and that's also evident on this trip to Washington.
International politicians look more respectfully at this chancellor.
In the White House, by the fireplace, at least one sentence from Biden can be clearly heard over the crackling: “Thank you for your leadership, Olaf”.
It's on Biden's speaking list (Scholz doesn't need one, by the way).
And the conversation lasts and lasts, with 105 minutes in the end, twice as long as planned.
But so far very little has been received by voters at home, and Scholz isn't doing much about it either.
For someone who wants to shape the key decisions for peace around the world and who has to change the mood in his own country in order to survive politically, he is very reserved.
Quiet.
Too few people realize that this is supposed to be a new Scholz.
Instead of an interview, a coffee break: Scholz without self-dramatization
In Washington it becomes particularly clear that he dislikes the show and the production.
The morning before his Biden visit, he is supposed to say a few sentences to the cameras.
He then stops, but stands in front of a brick wall with dried-out vines, with a construction site roaring in the background.
The construction workers don't think the grinding machine could take a five-minute break.
The Chancellor doesn't think there are more monumental backdrops in this city.
Even more strangely, late at noon, exactly time for the Tagesschau at home, it would be the perfect moment for an interview in front of an audience of millions.
Unfortunately, the Chancellor just disappeared for two hours.
Only afterwards, after repeated inquiries, did someone mutter and reveal where Scholz was: in a bookstore with his closest colleagues.
Browse and have a coffee.
(Christian German)