Seen from Berlin
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After his refusal to deliver the Taurus cruise missiles to Kyiv and his failed phone call to Putin, the chancellor is isolated in Europe. But also in Germany, where his candidacy for the February elections is increasingly contested.
Will Olaf Scholz run an election campaign on the backs of the Ukrainians? Since his failed phone call to Vladimir Putin on Friday, the social democratic chancellor has been accused of wanting to profile himself as a “chancellor of peace” to recover the votes of the pacifist left during the electoral campaign for the early legislative elections, scheduled for the 23rd. February 2025. Within the Social Democratic Party (SPD), pacifist currents are still very influential. He is also seeking to recover votes in the ranks of Sahra Wagenknecht's new pro-Putin party (BSW), credited with 8% of voting intentions.
While he has always aligned himself militarily with Washington's decisions, notably for the Leopard 2 battle tanks, Olaf Scholz categorically refuses to give in on the German-Swedish Taurus cruise missiles. Scholz's opposition is definitive, repeated one of
