Dealing with the Left Party: Merkel sees a big difference between herself and Scholz

Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) has clearly distanced herself from the attempt by the SPD chancellor candidate Olaf Scholz to present himself as a legitimate successor in office during the election campaign.

“With me as Chancellor, there would never be a coalition in which the left is involved.

And whether this is shared by Olaf Scholz or not remains open, ”said Merkel on Tuesday in Berlin in response to a reporter's question at a joint press conference with Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz.

"In this context, it is simply the case that there is a huge difference for the future of Germany between him and me." Scholz is Vice Chancellor and Minister of Finance in Merkel's government.

Accusation of "inheritance sneaking"

She wanted to make it clear that “for the future and especially in these times, very clear statements about the continuation of government work are required, regardless of the constellation.

And that if you refer to me, so to speak, there is a difference, ”said Merkel.

The Bavarian Prime Minister and CSU Chairman Markus Söder and the Hessian Prime Minister Volker Bouffier had previously accused Scholz of "inheritance sneaking" with a view to Merkel.

Scholz is not only attacked by representatives of the Union parties because he is doing “something similar to Angela Merkel”, as Bouffier put it.

He is also under criticism because he has so far not explicitly ruled out a coalition with the Left Party.

He has already tied such an alliance several times to a clear commitment to membership in NATO, for example again during the television debate of the chancellor candidates on Sunday evening.

In its election manifesto, the left calls for the dissolution of NATO and wants to replace it with a collective security system with Russian participation.

After the television debate, Left Party Leader Susanne Hennig-Wellsow rejected the demand for a commitment to NATO and said that this would mean “actually giving a vote to a war alliance”.

Scholz as well as the Green Chancellor candidate Annalena Baerbock had distanced themselves from the Left Party during the television debate on Sunday - because of the majority abstention of the left faction in the vote on the Bundeswehr mandate to evacuate from Afghanistan.

The past few days had "not exactly made working together any easier," said Scholz.

Baerbock admitted that the left was just closing itself off.

She also expressed doubts about the left's ability to govern on Tuesday.

The party “shot itself offside” with its voting behavior;

in the case of possible government alliances, however, it is always about the ability to act in foreign policy.

Gysi: The SPD and the Greens have to question their foreign policy

Leading politicians on the left reaffirmed their ability to govern in the federal government in a possible coalition with the SPD and the Greens, without giving up their rejection of NATO. "The SPD and the Greens must question their foreign policy," said the foreign policy spokesman for the left parliamentary group, Gregor Gysi, to the magazine Spiegel. "But I think the signs are set so clearly that we can come to an understanding on these issues with red-red-green."

But Gysi also said: The Chancellor candidate and the Chancellor candidates have probably not yet understood the dimension of the failure of NATO in Afghanistan. "Anyone who believes after this fiasco that the world would be safer if Germany put even more tax billions into armaments and European troops had to be able to wage wars even without the USA, thinks completely past the realities."

Left-wing top candidate Dietmar Bartsch said on the television station phoenix: “We are ready to take on government responsibility. If Annalena Baerbock wants to enforce basic child security - only with the left. If Olaf Scholz wants to enforce his minimum wage - only with the left. ”At the moment, his party had“ difficult polls ”and had to make his voice heard even more before the election, but Bartsch was confident“ that we will be able to increase again in the last few weeks ”.

The left-wing politician said the election campaign is currently being carried out with tough conditions.

Above all, he saw the discussion about the granting of an Afghanistan mandate for the Bundeswehr as an attempt by political competitors to “denounce us to a certain extent”.

Very early on, the left campaigned with the Greens and the FDP to bring people back from Afghanistan.

This was rejected by the Union and the SPD.

“None of us voted against rapid and maximum evacuation.

It was about a concrete mandate that was sloppily worked out, ”said the left-wing politician.

He attacked SPD Foreign Minister Heiko Maas sharply: "Either the BND failed or did not inform him well, or he is lying, Heiko Maas." The Union and the SPD are responsible for the events of the past few weeks.