Praise for Chancellor Scholz at Lanz: Steinbrück calls for the end of traffic light Zoff

Former Finance Minister Peer Steinbrück has sharply criticized the federal government.

Praise for Chancellor Scholz at Lanz: Steinbrück calls for the end of traffic light Zoff

Former Finance Minister Peer Steinbrück has sharply criticized the federal government. In the ZDF talk show "Markus Lanz" he criticized the party dispute within the traffic light coalition on Thursday evening. However, he praises the level-headed leadership of Chancellor Scholz.

Former finance minister Peer Steinbrück from the SPD has criticized the traffic light coalition because of its partisan differences. "A government has to act politically, even if it consists of three parties," said the former SPD politician on Thursday evening on the ZDF talk show "Markus Lanz". At the same time, he accuses today's politicians of a lack of willingness to deal with conflict. "Politics must apply the phrase 'promote and demand' to the present day," demands Steinbrück, who was Finance Minister under Chancellor Angela Merkel from 2005 to 2009.

At a joint press conference on October 5, 2008, Merkel and Steinbrück promised German citizens that their savings deposits would be safe despite the financial crisis at the time. "We tell the savers that their deposits are safe," Merkel said verbatim. At that time the banking crisis was at its peak, the Munich real estate bank Hypo Real Estate threatened to go bankrupt and was nationalized. In interviews at the time, financial experts advised German citizens to withdraw their savings and stock up on groceries. Numerous ATMs were empty and no longer dispensed banknotes. When fighting the crisis at the time, there were no party disputes in the grand coalition, recalls Steinbrück.

As far as the current crisis is concerned, Steinbrück is happy about Chancellor Olaf Scholz's level-headedness. "Because the risks that still seem to be lurking in the background, with a view to someone who is constantly tightening the escalation screw, mean that I'm very happy when there's no hothead, no cowboy, no man in the Federal Chancellery, one who shows off particularly well, and not one who goes it alone nationally, but one who is aware of the risks of further development," says Steinbrück.

Germany is experiencing what is probably the most difficult and most far-reaching challenge since reunification. "The government is under a lot of stress, and you have to give it credit for making mistakes in this situation, which we have never experienced before," says the former politician. The 75-year-old Steinbrück is happy that younger politicians who are better at dealing with stress are now in power.

However, Steinbrück considers the term "turning point" coined by Chancellor Scholz to be wrong. "I would rather speak of a "time break"," he says of Markus Lanz. In Moscow, President Putin is a war criminal who has attacked a country previously recognized by Russia and is presumably also responsible for genocide there, who is blackmailing the West with energy weapons and is now using nuclear weapons as a threat. Putin is forcing the West "into a confrontation between dictatorship and democracy."

Although Germany is not at war, the government must explain better what the break in times means. Steinbrück: "We have to understand that we have to wake up from a long-cultivated comfort and ease and realize that we citizens also have to do our part to ensure that we are not open to blackmail." Every citizen must ask themselves what their personal contribution is.

The federal government must adopt the concept of "promote and demand" from Agenda 2010 and apply it to the present day. The state is there to support people who are in existential need. "But he can also challenge civil society," says Steinbrück. The issue of distributive justice must play a new role on the political agenda.

Steinbrück is concerned about the development of the Ukraine war. He fears that Russian President Putin will not accept defeat. Should Putin feel too cornered, he could potentially carry out his threat to use nuclear weapons. Steinbrück: "I am grateful to everyone in Europe who deals with this scenario, so as not to get into a situation where the man (Putin) in his escalation crawls even higher into the tree than he already does because he no longer sees any possibility to get back to reality."