As of: February 21, 2024, 4:02 a.m
By: Georg Anastasiadis
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Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) is faced with the ruins of his politics, comments Merkur editor-in-chief Georg Anastasiadis.
© Kay Nietfeld/dpa/Klaus Haag
Chancellor Olaf Scholz is being snubbed by his own party members.
The coalition members of the SPD, Greens and FDP are openly attacking each other.
The end of the traffic light government seems near.
A comment by Georg Anastasiadis.
Is this a government – or just a caricature of it?
The Chancellor's authority in the traffic light coalition is disintegrating at a breathtaking pace.
The chairwoman of the defense committee in parliament, FDP politician Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, announces that she will vote with the Union in the Bundestag for the delivery of Taurus missiles to Ukraine - an outrageous move and an affront to Olaf Scholz.
At the same time, the Greens are blocking the federal law on payment cards for asylum seekers that was firmly agreed with the SPD and FDP.
And SPD parliamentary group leader Rolf Mützenich snubs his own chancellor and the FDP by putting the lifting of the debt brake, which both rejected, on the agenda.
That can be discussed.
But before taking on new debt, a savings package should first be put together.
The order is wrong.
The traffic lights never went beyond a policy of the lowest common denominator
The traffic light never had it easy because of their ideological differences.
The SPD, Greens and FDP could not go beyond a policy of the lowest common denominator.
But now the coalition members are attacking each other in open battle.
Regardless of whether it is asylum, budget, defense or the economy – there is disruption everywhere.
While a war is raging next door in Europe and the economy is in decline, the chaos in the government is becoming a serious risk to security and prosperity.
At the same time, the hope that a new coalition between the Union and the SPD can create a new beginning is suffering.
Mützenich's declaration of war on any cuts to the welfare state raises concerns that he has not recognized the turning point and the need for a fundamental realignment of the federal budget towards defense and stabilization of the economy.
He will not allow aid to Ukraine to be played off against social security and climate change, says Mützenich.
This is the age-old phrase of the SPD left and is intended to suggest that the state can spend unlimited money on everything possible.
The truth is: Mützenich would rather keep hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian refugees with billions in German citizens' money and thus away from the job market and the defense of their homeland than start making savings in the right places.
This is how the Chancellor stands in front of the rubble of his politics - and soon probably also of his government.
George Anastasiadis