BERLIN — Chancellor Olaf Scholz is betting his refusal to provide Ukraine with Germany’s Taurus long-range missiles will help his chances in the coming election.
Scholz, a social democrat, has been depicting himself to voters as the “prudent” choice ahead of the early election, set for Feb. 23, making the case that he knows how to help Ukraine without crossing a line that would lead to an escalation of the war. His refusal to send German-long range missiles to Ukraine, he argues, is evidence of that prudence.
“This delivery cannot be made without me being in favor,” Scholz said at the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro, referring to the Taurus missiles.
“This is, of course, something that the public will be thinking about when elections are held in the near future: Whether or not the course of resolute support, but also of prudence, which I stand for and which is also associated with the SPD, can be continued.”
In recent days, U.S. President Joe Biden authorized the use of U.S.-supplied long-range missiles by Ukraine to strike inside Russia, raising pressure on Scholz to change course on his refusal to send German missiles. Russia subsequently lowered its threshold for using nuclear weapons.
Friedrich Merz, the leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and, based on current polls, the likely next chancellor, has said he would be willing to provide Ukraine with Taurus missiles.
Scholz paved the way for an early election earlier this month by sacking his former finance minister, Christian Lindner. Since then, he has depicted himself as the safe choice for chancellor in an effort to approve his dismal approval ratings.
Inside the Social Democratic Party (SPD), many are debating whether the SPD defense minister, Boris Pistorius, would be the better pick for party’s chancellor candidate. Pistorius ranks as the most popular politician in the country, and in recent days, some SPD politicians have publicly backed him.
But Scholz says his party backs him.
“I also say quite clearly that the SPD and I want to win the next election together,” he said in the interview, which was conducted by Axel Springer media outlets at the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro (POLITICO is owned by Axel Springer).
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