Scholz: Besimplo on transatlantic reports and on Kamala Harris

2024-07-25 08:12:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

Scholz: Besimplo on transatlantic reports and on Kamala Harris

Olaf Scholz

The first question addressed to the chancellor at the press conference in Berlin concerns the topic of the US elections. But of course, the question is not as the chancellor might have wished. The question was formulated in this form: Would it be against the background of the rather weak poll results for his government, similar to the US President Joe Biden, that he would like to give up a re-election in the fall of 2025? Scholz, reluctant to answer immediately with a forced smile, said briefly: "Thank you for this nice and friendly question. No, the Social Democratic Party is a very unique party. I will run again to be elected chancellor."

But regarding how the chancellor considers these days loaded with developments in the USA, a number of other questions were asked by journalists. And in the subsequent answer, Scholz violates an unwritten law in Germany: What no German prime minister has ever expressed openly about the upcoming elections in a friendly country. While Scholz said very clearly: "I consider it very possible that Kamala Harris will win. But that is decided by American voters."

Scholz and Biden: A close connection

It is an open secret that not only in Berlin, but also in many other European cities, nothing else scares them more in the November 5 elections than a victory of former president Donald Trump. But maybe that's not the case, now that Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris is likely to run against Trump. However, it will no longer be President Joe Biden, with whom Scholz has always had a close relationship. Be it in the positioning for arms supplies to Ukraine, in the evaluations related to the war in the Middle East, the impression was always created that as Biden thinks, so does Scholz. Until the end, the chancellor has defended the US president, whose reputation began to decline after many appearances that left the impression of being cloudy and confused. A few weeks ago, Scholz said: "You shouldn't consider someone who is slow to run the office and the country. Joe Biden can do that."

Scholz knows Harris from many meetings

And now Kamala Harris. Scholz says he knows him well from many meetings at the White House in Washington, from the meeting at the spring security conference in Munich and recently at the NATO summit in the US. Scholz went on to say that: "She is a competent and experienced politician who knows what she is doing. She has very clear visions for the future of her country."

No word on Trump

And how is the work with Donald Trump? Did Scholz communicate with him after the assassination on July 11, when Trump was wounded in the ear? Scholz responds by elaborating that as chancellor his job is to communicate with and maintain close contact with each elected government in the US. I will do the same in the future. That was not an answer. To the question of whether he contacted to wish Trump a speedy recovery. In other words: Scholz did not call Trump. Nor has there been contact with others from Trump's circle. But unlike the chancellor, meanwhile, the German Minister of Labor, the social democrat Hubertus Heil, is in the USA and has met with the Republican governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, advising Germany not to shy away from seeking contact with Trump's entourage. Heil said in the US: "Of course my sympathies are with the Democrats. But Germany must maintain relations with difficult partners." So also with Trump.

US missile deployment in Germany?

Scholz tried to relativize another important topic, which has to do with relations with the USA. At the NATO summit in Washington, Scholz and Biden agreed, starting in 2026, to deploy long-range US missiles in Germany again. These missiles can even reach Russia. The chairman of the Social Democratic parliamentary group in the Bundestag, the heavyweight politician Rolf Mützenich, recently stated openly that: "The risk of an unintended military escalation is considerable." Scholz spares himself plenty of time in his assessment, explaining that Russia, with its aggression against Ukraine, has rejected decades of disarmament efforts. The deployment of fake American weapons is an important response to this: "This serves to have a deterrent effect. It also serves to prevent NATO countries from being attacked."

A protracted feud: Germany's defense spending

Scholz focused on another topic, stressing that Germany's relations with the US in the future will have a determining effect, regardless of who will govern in Washington: The demand that Europe, especially Germany, should take care of its own security own. Scholz calculates emphasizing that in 2017 Germany spent 37 billion euros on defense, while now (from the budget and the new special fund for the army) the expenses are 76 billion euros per year. Chancellor Scholz underlines: "Germany is the leading country when it is about security and defense in Europe. We will now regularly and continuously spend two percent of the economic yield on defense." A figure that NATO had set as a target in 2006 and that the US has been asking for from Germany for a long time. /DW