Olaf Scholz avoids many questions.

Is European unity threatened by Hungary not wanting to stop oil supplies from Russia and what does he intend to do about it?

It is not his intention to produce agency reports from European negotiations, the Chancellor says in an interview with ZDF.

After the Gepard tank, as recently decided, will the Leopard model soon be delivered to the Ukraine?

Here, too, Olaf Scholz (SPD) is evasive – as is the case with the question of whether it is also the German goal to strategically weaken Russia, as the USA recently formulated.

Timo Steppat

Editor in Politics.

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However, at the end of the 17-minute conversation on the show "What Now?" Scholz becomes clear.

Namely when it comes to his own possible trip to Kyiv, which opposition leader and CDU leader Friedrich Merz demanded of him.

The chancellor sharply criticized Ukraine for disinviting Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier (SPD) in mid-April.

"As democrats, there can be no doubt about it: you can't do that."

It cannot work that a country “that provides so much military aid, so much financial aid that is needed when it comes to the security guarantees that are important for Ukraine in the future, that you then says the President can't come."

"You'll have to endure the answer"

It was "a very remarkable process" to uninvite the Federal President, who had just been re-elected with a large majority, says Scholz. When asked whether that was the reason why he had not yet traveled to the Ukrainian capital, Scholz said: "That stands in the way .” The Chancellor does not object when the moderator summarizes that he will only travel to the Ukraine after Steinmeier has been there.

In mid-April, Steinmeier wanted to travel to Ukraine with the President of Poland, Andrzej Duda, but the Ukrainian government refused.

The Ukrainian ambassador to Germany, Andrei Melnyk, who had previously sharply criticized Steinmeier for his contacts with Russia as foreign minister, said afterwards that his president was happy about Scholz's visit.

CDU leader Merz said on Monday that he was going to Kyiv at the invitation of the Ukrainian parliament.

He wants to meet there with representatives of parliament and government and get an idea of ​​​​the situation.

"In my view, there is no reason to wait anywhere for a member of the federal government to plan a trip." Scholz said on ZDF that he had not raised any objections.

"I approve of that."

Of course, Merz and he would afterwards "talk about what he has to tell me."

Scholz, who was recently criticized for his reserved manner in connection with arms deliveries, is currently trying to better explain his attitude to the Ukraine war in the interview as well as in a guest article and other appearances.

When asked how he would rate his own crisis communication, he says it's about very serious things, so he wants to stay serious.

So, no note.

When Scholz says when asked about heavy weapons that a four-hour seminar can be held, it almost sounds like a threat to the moderators.

Because initially he lectures rather than answers.

When he is then interrupted, he once says: "You'll have to endure the answer."

One of Scholz's arguments against the delivery of heavy weapons for weeks was that there was a risk of a world war with nuclear power Russia.

However, in the ZDF interview, he does not explain how the change of heart and thus the delivery of Cheetah tanks came about.