German election campaign kicks off around Ukraine | War in Ukraine

A “cool head” to lead Germany rather than a “hot head”: Social Democratic Chancellor Olaf Scholz began his electoral campaign on Saturday by attacking his conservative rival Friedrich Merz, particularly on support for the ‘Ukraine.

Through rallies, the unpopular chancellor and the leader of the conservatives Friedrich Merz, favorite in the polls to succeed him, opposed three months of early legislative elections.

Olaf Scholz, whose heterogeneous coalition with ecologists and liberals broke up at the beginning of November, castigated his rival’s warlike attitude towards Russia.

He is seeking to rise in the polls by now positioning himself as chancellor of peace and supporter of restraint, while the conservatives advocate increased aid to Ukraine.

Cool head against hothead

In front of hundreds of members of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) in Berlin, Olaf Scholz promised to keep a cool head on the subject of the war between Russia and Ukraine, denouncing the hawkish overtones of his adversary.

Caution: we do not play Russian roulette with Germany’s securityhe said.

Friedrich Merz is in favor under certain conditions of a delivery of German Taurus missiles to kyiv, which would make it possible to strike deep into Russian territory.

This is a red line for Olaf Scholz, who is opposed on this point to his American, French and British allies in a pacifist country crossed by a significant current of pro-Russian opinion.

Rather than issue an ultimatum to a country with a nuclear armyOlaf Scholz wants to mean the real negotiations with Russia and Ukraine, without which nothing can be decided.

Under his mandate, Germany became the second largest supplier of arms to Ukraine, but at the cost of much hesitation.

In his constituency of Schmallenberg, in western Germany, Friedrich Merz promised a fundamental change for the German economy, close to a second annual recession in a row and weighed down by a serious industrial crisis.

The leader of Angela Merkel’s party attacked green-tinted interventionism in every area of ​​life, in every business and in every sector of activity greens and SPD.

Two glaring examples, according to him: subsidies for heat pumps and electric cars.

The State must no longer define how we heat, drive and eatcontinued this ex-business lawyer.

For Olaf Scholz, the CDU a always the same recipemade of tax cuts for businesses.

It reminds me of a doctor who always prescribes the same pills to his patients, whether they have a cough or a broken foot.

To solve the country’s ills, the chancellor instead wants to tackle underinvestment in Germany’s aging infrastructure.

On Saturday, he proposed to reimburse 10% taxes on sums invested by companies in the country as well as to relax national constitutional constraints which limit public deficits.

Nothing more to do with the CDU d’Angela Merkel

As for purchasing power, the social democrat recommends increasing the minimum wage from 12.41 to 15 euros (C$22) per hour, tax breaks for 95% of workers and a tax increase for the wealthiest 1%.

For Scholz, the current conservatives no longer have anything to do with the CDU d’Angela Merkelcentrist, and have become right-wing.

The two leaders also addressed illegal immigration, on which the far-right Alternative for Germany party thrives, given second place in voting intentions at 18%, behind the conservatives at around 33% and the social democrats. around 15%.

The head of the conservatives promised to do everything to further reduce illegal immigration in Germanystill bruised by an attack in Solingen at the end of August, committed by a Syrian in an irregular situation and claimed by the armed group NO.

He also recommends pushing back migrants to Germany’s borders, otherwise we will not solve this problem.

For Olaf Scholz, his rival does not accept realitynamely that Germany has long been a country of immigration with a quarter of the population having foreign origins.