In the grip of overlapping crises, Europe faces a leadership vacuum
Emmanuel Macron is a lame duck, Mario Draghi is leaving office and Olaf Scholz is hesitant. Who will step up…
ByOlaf Scholz
Olaf Scholz has been the chancellor of Germany since December 2021. Born in 1958, he studied law at the University of Hamburg, was Mayor of Hamburg from 2011 to 2018, and since 2018 had been vice-chancellor and finance minister in Angela Merkel’s coalition government. His Social Democratic Party won the most seats in the September 2021 federal election and governs in coalition with the Greens and the Free Democratic Party. Find all our latest news, comment and opinion on the German chancellor here.
Russia must lose this war
To ask the Ukrainians to stop fighting and negotiate is to invite a reinvasion as soon as Putin has rebuilt…
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EU membership for Ukraine will take years – but Kyiv needs weapons now
Promises of eventual membership provide some of the political disadvantages associated with joining but none of the advantages.
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The war in Ukraine should have strengthened Europe’s common voice. Why hasn’t it?
"European sovereignty" has to bind in central and eastern states if it is to succeed
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“Merkel’s policy of not arming Ukraine failed”: top CDU official on Germany and Russia
Jürgen Hardt, the foreign affairs spokesperson for Germany’s main opposition party, also blames Olaf Scholz for not being hard enough.
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Shadows of the First World War loom over Germany’s ambiguous response to Russia
Olaf Scholz’s unwillingness to say “Ukraine must win” in public shows his fear of stumbling inadvertently into a conflict.
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After the Zeitenwende: Jürgen Habermas and Germany’s new identity crisis
The 92-year-old philosopher has warned Germans not to allow anger at Russia and admiration for Ukraine to displace their country's…
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The Berlin elite’s Ukraine dilemma
After promising a sea-change in German foreign policy — a Zeitenwende — Olaf Scholz is reverting to type.
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