Olaf Scholz urged on Sunday that peace in Ukraine be achieved “more quickly” as he faces mounting pressure at home to bring about an end to the war.
The conflict started by Russia in 2022 has entered its third year, giving rise to a weariness over the continued cost it is causing the government and public.
The far-Right AfD and far-Left BSW parties – which both want to end weapons deliveries to Ukraine – made huge gains in two regional elections in Germany last week, while Mr Scholz’s coalition parties received a bruising.
“I believe that now is the time to discuss how we can get out of this war situation and achieve peace more quickly,” Mr Scholz told ZDF, the public broadcaster, in an annual summer interview.
Mr Scholz made the comments as a new poll by ARD DeutschlandTrend ranked him the most unpopular chancellor for almost 30 years.
It found that only 16 per cent of Germans were satisfied with his fractious traffic light coalition, which succeeded Angela Merkel’s government in 2021, and only 18 per cent approved of Mr Scholz personally. They are the lowest approval scores since 1997, when Helmut Kohl was leader.
Among the reasons for voters deserting Mr Scholz for the far Right are perceptions that he is weak on migration and too supportive of Ukraine.
Germany is the second-largest contributor of aid to Ukraine after the United States.
Mr Scholz said Russia should attend the next international peace summit on ending the war, after Moscow had been excluded from the first one.
“It’s important that we make progress,” Mr Scholz said. “There will definitely be another peace conference,” he said, “and the [Ukrainian] president and I agree that it must include Russia.”
‘Meaningful results’
Leaders and top officials from more than 90 states gathered in Switzerland in June for the first summit organised by Ukraine, while Russia had not been invited.
Kyiv is aiming for a second peace summit this year, and Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, said in late July that Russia should be present in order to achieve “meaningful results”.
Despite his weak polling numbers, Mr Scholz has vowed to seek re-election.
“I firmly expect that the SPD [Social Democratic Party] and I will have such a strong mandate in 2025 that we will also lead the next government,” Mr Scholz told Der Tagesspiegel newspaper.
Disclaimer: The copyright of this article belongs to the original author. Reposting this article is solely for the purpose of information dissemination and does not constitute any investment advice. If there is any infringement, please contact us immediately. We will make corrections or deletions as necessary. Thank you.
