The Chancellor was very frustrated: “We are not making a new episode of ‘Good Times, Bad Times’ here – it is about politics,” said Olaf Scholz in the Tagesspiegel interviewin which he repeatedly expressed his anger at the media.
His accusation: journalists do not adequately inform citizens about the content of the federal government’s work: “Too often, the only thing reported is: Who acts in a certain way? Who behaves badly? Who looks pretty or who expresses themselves particularly cleverly?” said Scholz.
But even his coalition partners are not happy about this. Vice President of the Bundestag Wolfgang Kubicki (FDP) told the Tagesspiegel: “Good politics explains itself.”
Green Party politician Anton Hofreiter also criticized Scholz’s statement: “Of course, one can discuss whether the media sometimes reports too much about performance and too little about content. But it is not the role of active politicians to lead this debate.”
The journalists’ association suspects base motives
The Federal Chairman of the German Journalists’ Association (DJV), Mika Beuster, does not want to let Scholz’s accusation stand: “The job of a Chancellor is to make policy, to explain and to answer questions from journalists,” he told the Tagesspiegel. This is the “obligation” of a Chancellor.
Massive media criticism will not boost his poll numbers.
The DJV Chairman Mika Beuster criticizes the Chancellor.
Beuster is not happy that Scholz is taking aim at the press: “The impression is created that Scholz is ducking critical questions.” He criticizes the Chancellor sharply: “Shifting the problems onto the journalists is unworthy of the office of the Chancellor – after all, he is responsible for his policies. Massive criticism of the media will not make his poll ratings shoot up.”
In fact, Scholz’s poll numbers are miserable. In the current ZDF political barometer 74 percent of all respondents said he should not run again as a candidate for chancellor for the SPD. Even among supporters of the Social Democrats, a majority (49 to 47 percent) said Scholz should step down in 2025.
At the moment, Scholz has no realistic option for power, because the traffic light parties are far from a majority with 30 percent combined. In the Politbarometer, however, the CDU and CSU alone received 33 percent of the votes among those surveyed.
In an interview with Tagesspiegel, Scholz nevertheless expressed optimism: “I firmly expect that the SPD and I will receive such a strong mandate in 2025 that we will also lead the next government.”
The traffic light coalition has delivered on issues such as migration, speeding up planning and expanding renewables, said Scholz. However, this is not sufficiently appreciated: “It annoys me when the view of politics focuses on the theatrical thunder that can be heard when every decisive reform is implemented, and the content hardly plays a role in the reporting,” said Scholz.
