A little more than a year ago, Markus Söder was sitting in the “Meistersaal” on Köthener Strasse in Berlin and chatting about a biography of the CDU politician Armin Laschet.

At least indirectly, this could be evaluated as an advertisement for a candidate for chancellor by the then North Rhine-Westphalian Prime Minister.

However, Söder did not commit himself too clearly.

How it ended is known.

Eckart Lohse

Head of the parliamentary editorial office in Berlin.

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Exactly at that place, on the same stage, took place on Thursday, one day after the election of the Social Democrat Olaf Scholz as Federal Chancellor, his party friend, who was once Chancellor himself, Gerhard Schröder. He also presented a biography, of course about Scholz, the man who had fought through Agenda 2010 with him. It was written by the journalist Lars Haider. Schröder instead of Söder, Scholz instead of Laschet. It was recalled several times how long and persistently Scholz maintained that he would succeed in becoming Merkel's successor. Even at times when all odds were against it.

What he felt when Scholz was elected. "Very simple: I was happy." Of course, unlike Söder in Laschet's case, Schröder no longer has any ambitions, he's already through with the office. Therefore ulterior motives can be ruled out to some extent during his appearance. Two of the front ideas were quite interesting. On the one hand, the former chancellor explained why, in his opinion, Scholz won. He wanted the office more than Annalena Baerbock from the Greens and CDU leader Armin Laschet. "If you want to get into this office, you absolutely have to want it," said the man who allegedly shook the fence of the Bonn Chancellery early on in life. Scholz broadcast this unconditional will.

Then Schröder had another piece of advice at hand.

After emphasizing the importance of communication for the success of politics, he said that this could either be done “top-down” by saying “that's that”.

One of Schröder's nicknames was "Basta-Chancellor".

But one can also first see “how the lines of development” went, and “then one tries to lead within what is foreseeable”.

He believes that Scholz's leadership principle must be as follows, especially in a constellation with the Greens and the FDP: “He needs patience and direct conviction, direct discussions with the most important people in his cabinet.

"Well, it's not that easy to have such a constellation."