Since that evening it has been clear: Olaf Scholz is possibly the most sure-footed candidate in terms of women's politics in this federal election campaign. You have to get that done first. After all, Scholz is also in a political duel with a woman, namely Annalena Baerbock. But what Scholz said on Wednesday evening - more precisely: did not say - was speaking: He was asked by a department head of Brigitte, yes, the women's magazine, whether his wife Britta Ernst, Minister of Education in Brandenburg, would continue to work if he was elected Chancellor. And Scholz: “I am outraged by this question.” You wouldn't ask a woman like that. The journalist was contrite and later spoke of the dumbest question in months. Thank goodness an old picture of Scholz, in which he still has a few hairs on his head, was quickly shown,which quickly brought the discussion back to a shallower level.

Mona Jaeger

Deputy Editor in Charge of News.

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Olaf Scholz is the SPD's candidate for chancellor.

Scholz was actually always quite colorless and has so far remained very true to himself on this point as well.

That looks serious.

It only becomes a problem when the small amount of color no longer falls into the limelight of the interested public.

It can be said in defense of Scholz that his competitors Armin Laschet and Baerbock are currently producing more negative than positive headlines.

But Scholz has not really used it so far.

His people think: Sit out, at some point the citizens will discover him.

It's just stupid that there are only two months left to explore.

Then there is a general election.

The “Brigitte live” format, in which Laschet and Baerbock were guests this year, is therefore not at all bad for the sober Scholz.

Resting in himself, Scholz says that he is calm and sleeping well, unfortunately mostly only for too short a time.

He likes to do sports, it's good for his body.

It tends not to relax the mind, which is usually quite relaxed.

Should Scholz have resolved before that evening at Brigitte's not to laugh a lot at this level and not want to be funny - he stuck to his plan.

There was a pretty realistic, solid and personable Scholz, and that's something.

Scholz did not take the simple points with him.

Should politicians stop sleeping?

No, that's not the point.

Political decisions are made under time pressure.

Even more sleep doesn't help.

Justice as a leitmotif

Scholz, who sees himself as the natural successor to long-term Chancellor Angela Merkel, has already internalized her strategy well: hardly any talk was given about the opponent.

The first tip got the SPD Vice Kevin Kühnert.

His twenty-year-old self, active lawyer, is certainly not satisfied with each of his current decisions, said Scholz.

But at least he had time to think everything through once or twice and change his mind every now and then.

He did not aspire to join the Bundestag as an ex-lawyer - as Kühnert just now, whom Scholz did not mention by name.

It is important to do politics with the heart.

Justice has always been his political leitmotif.

He did not dwell long on the Hartz IV reforms, which were painful for the SPD, but only marginally advertised the citizens' money, which the SPD wants to introduce instead.

In the end, it's about respect, that's his answer to a society drifting apart.

Who wanted to contradict?

Small attack against the Union

Scholz did not look long at the faux pas of the competitors, which the moderators put in front of him again. Scholz became more emotional - or rather: more lively - when it wasn't about the personal, shallow, but about the expansion of electricity capacities. The Union refuses to admit that much has to be done now to provide Germany with more electricity. If Laschet (he did not use this name either) spoke about behavioral issues that climate policy was not about re-education through politics, then that was correct. But it was a sham debate. Actually, it is about concrete politics, so: Where should which lines be located? The Union refused to engage in this debate.

Scholz and the SPD hope that the citizens will become more and more irritated by the missteps of the competition. With a choice in which topics, but perhaps even more so, the people are the focus and the choice. And according to the SPD's calculation, one's own candidate remains the cleanest. After that evening at Brigitte's, the citizens don't know much more about Scholz. For him and the SPD it would be a sad realization: the citizens are not really interested in him either.