German Chancellor Olaf Scholz heads to Paris and Brussels on Friday for talks with French and European Union leaders, as the bloc faces a growing list of foreign policy crises.
With the 27-member bloc confronted with growing tensions on the Russian-Ukrainian border, negotiations on reviving the Iran nuclear deal, as well as divisions over the Nord Stream 2 pipeline and relations with China — Scholz is looking to hammer out a unified EU strategy.
Where is Scholz headed?
The newly sworn-in German chancellor will first travel to Paris first for a working meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron.
Scholz will be received with military honors, with a working lunch to follow. Macron and Scholz are due to speak with reporters in the afternoon.
Besides a long list of topics and urgent challenges, the visit is primarily an opportunity for Macron and Scholz “to get to know each other better,” said DW Brussels correspondent Barbara Wesel.
“This is the crucial relationship in Europe — the president of France and chancellor of Germany have to work together, or everything fails,” she noted.
After talks in Paris, Scholz will then head to Brussels for discussions with European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Charles Michel. The talks come ahead of an EU leaders’ summit next week.
In the evening, Scholz will meet with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg to discuss security issues.
What’s on the agenda?
Russia’s troop buildup on the border with Ukraine is set to dominate the talks on Friday. The situation is particularly urgent in light of the United States warning that Russia could invade next year, which Moscow denies.
Tackling the ongoing challenges posed by the coronavirus pandemic as well as measures to combat climate change will also rank high on the list.
Scholz is also expected to set out Berlin’s stance on China and Russia — which are two potential points of friction with Macron and other EU leaders.
The Nord Stream 2 pipeline, a project to deliver natural gas from Russia directly to Germany, bypassing pipelines in Ukraine and eastern Europe, could play a major role in pressuring Russia.
At a press conference ahead of his inauguration this week, Scholz was guarded on the subject of China and declined to say whether Germany would join a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.
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Meet Germany’s government
Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD)
Germany’s chancellor was finance minister and vice-chancellor in Angela Merkel’s government. He campaigned on stability and pragmatism to become the Federal Republic’s ninth chancellor and the fourth Social Democrat to hold the office. The former mayor of Hamburg handed his center-left party a surprise win in September’s election.
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Meet Germany’s government
Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP)
Media-savvy Christian Lindner has been leader of Free Democratic Party (FDP) since 2013, inheriting a party that had just lost representation in parliament in the election. The 42-year-old’s reward for leading the neoliberal resurrection is the second most powerful office in the land — raising eyebrows among some who pointed out that his party actually finished behind the Greens in the election.
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Meet Germany’s government
Economy and Climate Protection Minister and Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck (Greens)
The Greens have expanded the influential Economy Ministry to include its signature issue, climate protection, while also enhancing the power of 52 year-old Green Party co-leader Robert Habeck. A member of the more moderate “realist” wing of the party, Habeck the author of childrens’ books was already Environment and Agriculture Minister in his home state of Schleswig-Holstein.
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Meet Germany’s government
Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Green Party)
Angela Baerbock, the party’s 40-year-old chancellor candidate, is set to be the new Foreign Minister, and has already ruffled feathers by taking a tougher tone on China. Baerbock is only the second Green politician to take on the post, after Joschka Fischer in the late 1990s.
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Meet Germany’s government
Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD)
Possibly the biggest surprise in Scholz’s new Cabinet, Faeser has been elevated from SPD party leader in Hesse to one of Germany’s biggest ministries, her first role at federal level. Some observers hope her appointment signal an intention to get tougher on far-right extremism. She is the first woman to hold the office.
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Meet Germany’s government
Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD)
A popular choice for Germans who have enjoyed his outspoken appearances on TV talk shows, Lauterbach has been the face of the SPD’s tough health policy throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. His reward is a tricky post in which he will likely oversee the introduction of mandatory vaccines.
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Meet Germany’s government
Justice Minister Marco Buschmann (FDP)
The 44-year-old Buschmann was first elected to the Bundestag in 2009 and remained an influential politician in the party throughout the FDP’s lean years from 2013 to 2017. His signature issue in parliament was protecting individual freedoms, though he has now come out in favor of mandatory vaccines.
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Meet Germany’s government
Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht (SPD)
Angela Merkel’s last justice minister has now been put in charge of Germany’s armed forces and one of the biggest budgets at the Cabinet table. Some political observers had the 56-year old pegged for the Interior Ministry role, and her experience with military affairs is seen as limited.
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Meet Germany’s government
Food and Agriculture Minister Cem Özdemir (Greens)
The veteran Green Party politician will finally join the federal government after over a quarter-century in the German parliament. The first-ever German Cabinet minister with Turkish parents is a party moderate and outspoken critic of Turkish President Erdogan. He co-chaired the Green Party for close to a decade.
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Meet Germany’s government
Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection Minister Steffi Lemke (Greens)
The ministry with the longest name has gone to the much-respected Steffi Lemke, among the handful who co-founded the Greens’ East German branch in 1989. During her first spell in the Bundestag (1994-2002), she was also one of the few Green Party parliamentarians to initially oppose German participation in the Afghan war.
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Meet Germany’s government
Transport and Digital Infrastructure Minister Volker Wissing (FDP)
FDP General Secretary Volker Wissing is the party’s second most powerful politician after leader Christian Lindner. He is also no stranger to a coalition with the SPD and the Greens, having spent five years as Rhineland-Palatinate’s Economy Minister.
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Meet Germany’s government
Construction and Housing Minister Klara Geywitz (SPD)
One of only two East Germans in the new Cabinet, Klara Geywitz has been tapped to head a new ministry set up at the insistence of the SPD. Housing has become an acute issue in Germany, where urban areas are fast running out of affordable housing. Geywitz was Scholz’s co-candidate in their failed bid for the SPD leadership in 2019.
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Meet Germany’s government
Labor and Social Affairs Minister Hubertus Heil (SPD)
43-year-old Heil will keep the post that he held during Angela Merkel’s last government, indicating that his party his pleased with his work. Among his key issues has been trying to increase pay for care home workers, which Germany is desperately short of. He will also oversee the increase in Germany’s minimum wage to €12 ($13.60) an hour.
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Meet Germany’s government
Economic Cooperation and Development Minister Svenja Schulze (SPD)
Angela Merkel’s last environment minister is to become Scholz’s first development minister. The 53-year-old Schulze is an outspoken opponent of nuclear power and a member of several environmental organizations.
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Meet Germany’s government
Education and Research Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger (FDP)
Head of the Hesse FDP, 53-year-old Stark-Watzinger was part of the party’s negotiating team in coalition negotiations and a specialist in finance and education policy. She has called for an “educational revolution” in Germany, ushering a major digitalized overhaul of the current system. She also lived in the UK for nine years.
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Meet Germany’s government
Family, Senior Citizens, Women, and Youth Minister Anne Spiegel (Greens)
The 41-year-old Anne Spiegel has already had a meteoric career at state level. Having held the Family Ministry in Rhineland-Palatinate since 2016, she became the state’s new Climate Protection minister in May after leading the Greens’ election campaign in this year’s state election. She has now been promoted even higher.
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Meet Germany’s government
Chief of Staff and Minister for Special Affairs Wolfgang Schmidt (SPD)
Scholz’s right-hand man in the Cabinet will be Wolfgang Schmidt, who worked with the chancellor when Scholz was mayor of Hamburg. Chief of staff with a special ministerial brief that gives the chancellorship extra weight in the Cabinet, Schmidt’s role will largely involve coordinating the ministerial work of the three parties.
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Meet Germany’s government
Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media Claudia Roth (Greens)
Claudia Roth is moving into the spotlight of German cultural policy. Within the Chancellor’s office, the 66-year-old will also be responsible for DW. Former party leader Roth is one of the most prominent faces of the Green Party. Most recently, the former manager of the anarchist band Ton Steine Scherben was Vice President of the Bundestag.
Author: Ben Knight, Lisa Hänel
Why is the trip so significant?
In choosing Paris as his first port of call as chancellor, Scholz is following in the footsteps of other German leaders.
Angela Merkel, Gerhard Schröder, Helmut Kohl and Helmut Schmidt all made a point of visiting France first after becoming chancellor. Franco-German reconciliation and friendship in the aftermath of the two world wars have become a core pillar of German foreign and European policy.
In his capacity as Germany’s finance minister under Merkel, Scholz is no stranger to high-level talks with leaders in the EU and beyond.
While Scholz’s foreign policy goals within Europe appear to be consistent with those of Angela Merkel — namely strengthening the EU on the global stage and maintaining close cooperation with the United States — officials and analysts will be watching closely to see where the new chancellor could potentially deviate.
rs/sms (AFP, Reuters)
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Merkel bids farewell after 16 years in office
The last goodbye
The last two months have been full of goodbyes for Merkel. Here she waves as she departed the chancellery for the last time having formally handed the reins to Olaf Scholz, on the day he took the oath of office in the Bundestag.
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Merkel bids farewell after 16 years in office
Out of the hot seat
After Germany’s federal election in September, Merkel was no longer a member of the Bundestag. Though she stayed on as caretaker chancellor until a new government was finalized, protocol decreed she had to watch Wednesday’s proceedings from the viewing gallery.
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Merkel bids farewell after 16 years in office
Standing ovation
International leaders like former US President Barack Obama have said publicly how much they appreciated Merkel’s leadership. Colleagues at home made it clear that they felt that way too, with members of the Bundestag clapping for the first woman to lead the German government.
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Merkel bids farewell after 16 years in office
No hard feelings
Merkel’s successor Olaf Scholz gave his former boss a large bouquet to bid her farewell. They were not campaign rivals, as Merkel had already chosen to step down before the election. And although they are from different parties, they governed together in two coalitions, with Scholz most recently serving as her vice chancellor and finance minister.
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Merkel bids farewell after 16 years in office
Friendship and continuity
Before leaving office, Merkel made a point of bringing Scholz with her to meet foreign leaders and to major meetings such as the G20 summit. Merkel said it was important for the global community to know there would be continuity despite a change of government in Germany.
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Merkel bids farewell after 16 years in office
The rhombus retires
Merkel’s famous stance, with her hands together in a diamond shape, is known as the “Merkel rhombus” or “power rhombus” in Germany. It was a sign of her steadiness and unchanging demeanor, but also indicative of a politician who would rather get to work than worry about photoshoots. Merkel, who has never courted the limelight outside of politics, may well be happy to have the latter behind her.
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Merkel bids farewell after 16 years in office
History repeats itself
On November 22, 2005, Merkel ended up holding two bouquets, one a gift to her and the other awkwardly passed back to her by her predecessor Gerhard Schröder. Schröder and Merkel have not had the kind of relationship she is likely to have with Scholz going forward. He has often criticized her publicly, and she has tried to distance herself from his close ties with Russian leaders and businessmen.
Author: Elizabeth Schumacher
Article source: https://www.dw.com/en/germany-s-olaf-scholz-eyes-stronger-eu-in-first-trip-abroad-as-chancellor/a-60076768?maca=en-rss-en-ger-1023-xml-atom