Chancellor Olaf Scholz is completing his last public appointment in Eichwalde

About 24 hours before the end of his term Olaf Scholz An enthusiasm that he would have liked to have been wished for more often in recent years. « Olaf, Olaf », it sounds over the courtyard of the Humboldt Gymnasium Eichwalde. The Chancellor smiles, steps off the pupils’ trellis. When he accompanies a young person with a loud cheer, everything seems far away for a moment. The Burst of the coalitionthe defeat in the Bundestag election, the early end of his time as head of government. This Monday morning is the last public appearance of the SPD politician as a chancellor. Should Friedrich Merz On Tuesday as planned from Bundestag to be elected to the tenth Chancellor, Scholz ends after 1245 full days with the handover of the certificate of appointment to Merz.

« I am Olaf Scholz. I am a member and Chancellor. Oh, and I am a lawyer by profession, » says the 66-year-old shortly afterwards. Around 200 people gathered in a not very large space of the high school, the occasion is the EU school project day. Eichwalde is located in Brandenburg, 40 minutes away from car, Scholz ‘Social Democrats in Berlin at the same time the last steps on the way to a new government with the Union. Party leader Lars Klingbeil presents the SPD members of the cabinet, the coalition agreement is signed.

Scholz no longer focused on

With all of this, Scholz only has as a spectator From the member of the parliament do. The traffic light government will go home with him as a chancellor, he had repeatedly explained. In the summer of last year, he dawned that he could be mistaken. The already bulky government cooperation with the Greens and the FDP Was increasingly bumpy, it did not go on at the beginning of November. Scholz fired his finance minister Christian Lindner (FDP), the traffic light coalition was history.

The pupils in the Humboldt Gymnasium are friendly, they do not ask about his greatest political defeat. Instead, it’s about Europe, which is also a bit nasty, after all, Scholz will not go down in history as a big European. His critics complain that he had taken care of the Europe project. The European layer in the back expresses it symbolically – it was accidentally hung around.

Honor with Zapfenstreich

A student wants to know what is typically European for him. Democracy, the rule of law « and that we don’t want to be imperialist power ». Scholz came in the dark blue suit, white shirt, no tie. He smiles his mischievous Scholz smile in between, it almost seems as if he has shaken the burden of the Chancellor years and can watch it freed, how now CDU boss Friedrich Merz Submit to be his successor.

But it doesn’t take long and it gets into chancellor mode. His voice becomes so quiet that, despite the loudspeaker system, she can hardly be understood. Scholz lectures, where he should inspire the students around him for Europe. They are the future, he the past, so you could have it a little bit on this date. A few hours later, he will still have an abundant opportunity for state -bearing people: The Bundeswehr holds a big tap in the Bendlerblock in honor of him. But Scholz doesn’t thaw. Which European head of government was most likeable to him? « I will answer the question from the age of 80. »

AfD is the strongest force

Eichwalde is a pretty 6500-soul community in the Dahme-Spreewald-Land. Houses and two-family houses are embedded between a lot of green. People are obviously doing well, the real estate prices have almost capital level. In the last Bundestag election, the AfD Most of the voices here, the constituency went to an AfD candidate. A student wants to know whether democracy is still possible under a right party. Scholz looks seriously, he is talking loudly now. It is about the continued existence of democracy, he explains. He calls the AfD by name and says that all right -wing parties have to get smaller again. Already his Predecessor Angela Merkel ((CDU) wanted to halve the AfD, Scholz also had to do that – neither of them did it. On the contrary: the secured right-wing party is now getting a head-to-head race with the Union, at least in surveys. Will that also be an inheritance of his chancellery? The frustration of many people about established politics?

Scholz remains a member

Scholz was elected directly to the Bundestag six times. He was SPD general secretary, Federal Minister of Labor, first mayor of Hamburg, finance minister and Vice Chancellor, head of government from December 2021. He is very important to him « the honor it represents the ninth chancellor of the Federal Republic », he emphasizes. « And what are you doing tomorrow? » Asks a student. « One thing is clear, » replies Scholz, « I’m a member of a member. » He won’t be rich, nor do he would make lobbyism. He wants to save himself good advice on his successor, so he obviously keeps it entirely with Angela Merkel. « I will not say on the radio every day in the morning what the government is doing wrong, » promises Scholz. Instead, as a politician, he will make a contribution to the fact that people in the country could live well. « I will do that when I live for so long. »

After all, he still has a very specific project: packing boxes. In his office in the Chancellery, they have already stacked themselves in the past few days. « I will certainly assume that when the morning takes place as we all imagine that the future Chancellor can then move into a very tidy office, » promised his now outgoing government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit.