A good three weeks before the general election, things are going really well for Olaf Scholz.

The polls of the SPD chancellor candidate rank well ahead of his competitors Armin Laschet (CDU) and Annalena Baerbock (Greens).

Even for his party, which seemed trapped in the polls for a long time, the popularity is growing vigorously.

The latest polls now see the Social Democrats at 25 percent - ahead of the Union and the Greens.

Lorenz Hemicker

Editor in politics

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When the top candidate of the Social Democrats answered questions from FAZ readers on Friday and was asked for his explanation of the SPD's success, Scholz was outwardly as unmoved as he has been known since the beginning of the election campaign. His party was the first to name the candidate for chancellor and presented its program very early on, but above all Scholz advertised that the SPD had long conveyed an image of unity. “That parties can hold their breath when they want to be elected”, one could imagine, so Scholz, who implicitly refers to the taunts of the CSU chairman Markus Söder against Armin Laschet as well as the obvious ice age between the green co-chairmen Annalena Baerbock and Robert Habeck referred to.

Scholz avoided coalition speculation, knowing full well that his party could quickly run out of breath in the polls.

With a view to speculation about a red-green-red coalition, the Federal Minister of Finance continued to avoid committing himself: “Everyone can rely on me.

And I will only govern as everyone knows me. ”Scholz explicitly opposed the demand of the left to expropriate large real estate groups (“ I don't believe in expropriations ”).

The SPD candidate also did not want to comment on possible appointments to ministerial posts in a Scholz cabinet.

These followed from the coalition negotiations.

Scholz announced, however, that in the event of an election victory, the cabinet would consist of half women and half men, "who will do their job very well."

In terms of content, Scholz became more specific.

The SPD candidate for chancellor announced that he would make electricity generation using regenerative energies a central project in his chancellorship.

The exit from fossil fuels, which had formed the basis for the industry for over 250 years, is a "very ambitious project" in 25 years.

It was "embarrassing" that the Union had not understood for a long time that a climate-neutral industry would need significantly more electricity.

Time is pressing.

All necessary decisions would have to be made in the first year of government.

Defense of the Afghanistan withdrawal

In order to cope with the corona pandemic, Scholz could imagine querying the vaccination status of people in contact with vulnerable groups in the future. This is a "moderate but justifiable" measure. The chancellor candidate excluded more pressure to increase the vaccination quota, but at the same time promoted further vaccinations.

With a view to the disastrous end of the Afghanistan mission, Scholz defended the commitment of the West over the past twenty years. It was right "that we had fought the Al-Qaida terrorists on the ground". He brought Germany more security. The following stabilization measures were the logical consequence. Scholz defended the deduction as logical. “We would have liked to have had a few more months,” he said, but the scenario that has now occurred, that the government has let the country down, would have happened otherwise.

After NRW Prime Minister Armin Laschet (CDU) and FDP party chairman Christian Lindner, Olaf Scholz was the third top candidate who answered questions from readers and moderator Reinhard Müller (FAZ). The Greens co-chairman Robert Habeck will follow next Wednesday. Subscribers can register in the FAZ-Vorteilswelt at meinabo.faz.net and ask their questions.