“Starmer packt das an”? Why Sir Keir needs to look to Germany
In the last few weeks the British media have decided to care about the Germany election.
It is our closest ally in Europe, remains the biggest economy in the West (bar the States), and provides a possible parallel for British politicos.
Most lazy British media write-ups of the British media cycle around the bizarre loathing of Merkel’s decision on refugees; the car industry backing Brexit; and war references.
Yet circumstances on the ground have forced foreign reporters to sit up. Olaf Scholz, vice-chancellor and Left-winger, is surging.
Gone are the Greens (who unlike their English and Scottish idiotic cousins are prepared to work with both the CDU/CSU and SPD to further their core aims of environmentalism), and the lackluster performance of Merkel’s replacement Laschet has offered an unlikely opening for Scholz.
But who is he? Now it would be silly to focus on the policies per se of the German SPD and the UK’s Labour Party, but in terms of how turning negatives into positives, and how to rebuild from a weak base they provide an example to one another.
The SPD was, like Labour under Corbyn in 2019, thought to be “doomed to catastrophic defeat four months ago.” Indeed, four years ago the public rejected Scholz (as the Guardian said at the time: “Schulz: social justice, no nukes … and no match for Angela”).
Yet things change: if you can’t beat Merkel become Merkel.
Scholz has fashioned himself as the new Merkel. When his CDU rival, Laschet, was elected he tried to distance himself from Merkel. He said: “We must break out into a new era, we can’t just keep on with business as usual” and critiqued the refugee policies of the most successful Chancellor.
The Merkel space was left vacant and Scholz has filled it. Despite being the face of a very radical platform (raising the minimum wage gets mentioned in press cuttings rather regularly), people trust him.
The sensible lawyer/bank manager that’s not out for a good time. As one campaign poster said: Scholz packt das an or Scholz will sort it. Posing the big questions and with the sensibility to be trusted with answering them.
Indeed, the term “charisma vacuum” was a dig both at Laschet and Scholz. But, in his boring, capable, stable manner, Scholz has turned a negative into a positive.
He is stable and crucially fights off the ‘red scare’ attack line not least because it sounds ridiculous. It was Scholz’s realpolitik attitude to socialism that has led the quote “If you have visions you should go to the doctor” being attributed to him.
This personality is dubbed weltbürgertum or worldliness. The folksy down to Earth attitude that politicians the world over cultivate.
And it’s working. Merkel has been forced to beg her supporters to vote for Laschet in a rare partisan intervention within the Bundestag (she was booed by members).
So, can Sir Keir learn from Scholz? The take-away you could arrive at is that Sir Keir should emulate Boris Johnson. He’s a winner after all.
But this would be wrong. The Covid-19 pandemic has changed people’s views. Gone is the jovial Regency leader that the public lauded in 2019. Now it’s sober politicians (see Rishi Sunak’s inexplicable popularity, or Sturgeon’s popularity in Scotland despite dreadful leadership) that the public long for.
Sir Keir should not emulate Johnson but rather Scholz (emulating Merkel). The old Fabian call of “a wolf in sheep’s clothing” plays better both in the UK and Germany than nonsense about radicalizing the working classes towards Eternal Revolution.
Like Scholz, Sir Keir is viewed as boring — so much so he had to embarrassingly claim he was not. He was a childhood radical and Eurocommunist but attacking him for it now would seem bizarre. The public could legitimately simply laugh if they were told Sir Keir was interesting enough for such a radical streak.
Polls show men wouldn’t want Johnson to take their wife out for dinner because of… well everything we know about Johnson really. That might sound stupid but it impacts voters decisions. If you don’t trust a man with your wife, do you trust them to act in your interests? Your family’s interests? Frankly your wife’s interests?
Sir Keir may be boring but he isn’t going to run off with your wife (whatever the truth of the Bridget Jones’ rumours are). Merkel was dull as ditchwater but she was competent and allowed Germans (and by virtue, Europeans) to move on with their lives without checking Twitter to see if the nukes have been launched (a la Trump).
After the pandemic, and with the expectant recession, people crave that stability. They also want these problems to be solved. Who better than a boring man with a secret stash of radical policies? Indeed: “Starmer will sort it” has a ring to it.
