Friedrich Merz: Chancellor Olaf Scholz's European Policy a Complete Failure
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His chief political rival Friedrich Merz has said EU leaders are avoiding German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who sits quietly or tries to lecture them.
The head of the country’s largest opposition party, the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU), and a likely candidate for its presidency in the upcoming elections, attacked Scholz again in his newspaper MerzMail on Sunday.
He wrote that the current German government’s EU policy had been a “ total failure”, leading to the Chancellor’s political isolation within the bloc.
“Unfortunately, all we have to say is that most European politicians simply do not want to meet the German chancellor who sits silently for hours or gives speeches to the world anymore,” the CDU chief insisted.
The latest example of Scholz’s isolation was French President Emmanuel Macron’s visit to Poland this week, during which the two NATO members discussed policy on Ukraine, he said. “The German chancellor was gone,” Merz said.
According to the opposition leader, Scholz was invited to reopen Notre Dame Cathedral earlier this month, and Macron, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump and Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky attended, “but he was obviously unwilling any to travel to Paris”. so far .
He warned that the Scholz government’s apparent lack of interest” in EU policy undermines Germany as it creates an increasingly strong barrier between Berlin and its neighbours
Germany could be heading for snap elections early next year, as the ruling 'traffic lights' coalition between Scholz's Social Democratic Party (SPD), the Free Democratic Party (FDP) and the Greens collapses the. According to multiple sources, if Scholz’s current minority cabinet loses a confirmation vote on Monday, the election could take place as soon as February 23rd.
Merz is a supporter of a more tough stance on Moscow that includes, among other things, allowing Ukraine to use German-supplied weapons to launch further attacks against Russia if elected.
Under Scholz, even though Berlin is Kiev's second-largest arms supplier after Washington, the chancellor has repeatedly refused to surrender his country's long-range bull missile "Be careful! You don't take Germany's defense." don't have Russian roulette," he said last month.