Stefan Aust: Scholz vs. Lindner – “A hate speech like something out of a fairy tale book” | EUROtoday

WELT: Chancellor Olaf Scholz is throwing FDP Minister Christian Lindner out of the government and is aiming for new elections – the day after the US election, which raises new questions for the country and Europe. Was that responsible?

Stefan Aust: That was a really big appearance by the Chancellor: hate speech straight out of a fairy tale! Finally he spoke with real emotion and not in the usual monotony of a file folder. He looked sometimes to the left and sometimes to the right, as if there was a teleprompter there from which he was reading the text. Everything probably came from the heart and that still resonates.

Scholz and his SPD can now indulge in the red-green money distribution spree – unmolested by liberal debt brakes. Then they should smoke a – legal – joint. And of course hope that the new old Trump makes as many mistakes as possible, which can then be used to explain the decline of the local economy.

WELT: What do you expect in the coming weeks – who will benefit from this phase until new elections, whenever they come?

Aust: First of all, we will probably have a red-green minority government, a traffic light without yellow. And their legislative proposals must then find a majority. It wouldn’t hurt if the members of the Bundestag would focus on the issue and not just on coalition discipline. Majorities from camps that are now separated by fire walls will occasionally come together. Exciting times – especially when it comes to Trump’s bold predictions about the imminent end of the war in Ukraine that he promised as president.

WELT: How will the returning US President Trump assess a situation in which Europe, with Germany in the middle, is unable to act in such a way?

Aust: He will represent his own interests quite stubbornly, at least those of the USA. He has already made it clear before that Germany and Europe must protect themselves militarily with at least two percent of the gross national product. It remains to be seen whether the federal government, with the current and future Red-Green staff at the top of the ministries and the Chancellery, can withstand the American momentum. Whether it is or was unable to act with or without the FDP doesn’t make that much of a difference. If you look at some of the laws created by the traffic light coalition, not governing would have been no worse than governing. It was primarily a red-green government. This started with the government declaration: “We are a government of technical progress because we can only become climate neutral with technical progress.” After 250 years of prosperity based on the burning of coal, oil and gas, “we are now in front of us 23 years in which we must and will phase out fossil fuels.” What that meant in reality has become abundantly clear over the last three years. And then there was Ukraine and then the consequences of Merkel’s “Refugees Welcome!” Or this: “The federal government that is now starting work under my leadership” will be a “progressive government,” said Scholz in his inaugural speech. And because “justice and life opportunities for all” cannot stop at the borders, there will also be a “sensible migration policy” that “promotes legal migration and reduces irregular migration”. What happened as a result could be seen every day of his reign. It was a government of green dreams and conjured nightmares. The fact that the FDP took part at all was a clear violation of its own principle: “Better not to govern than to govern badly!”

WELT: Now there are fears of the end of the democratic Western alliance of values. Do you join this chorus or what do you expect from Trump?

Aust: Western values ​​also include seeing reality as it really is. Simply dreaming and classifying everyone who is not entirely on the red-green trail as definitely anti-constitutional and anti-democratic may not be enough in the long run. The result can be seen – with all the similarities and all the differences between the two countries and continents – especially in the USA. At some point, the broad masses of working and tax-paying citizens will withdraw their trust from those who govern from above and vote in the elections against the person who loudly promises them that they will look after their interests. It remains to be seen whether he will do so. Americans’ memory of Trump’s previous four years apparently did not prevent them from voting for him again. Maybe Chancellor Scholz should follow an example: resign and try again in four years. Then he’s only 71.

Stefan Aust is editor of WELT and WELT AM SONNTAG. Jörn Lauterbach asked the questions.