Unlike Angela Merkel, he likes his meetings short and one-on-one
Many of these troubles could have been avoided. When eastern Europeans railed at German slowness to back Ukraine last year, the chancellery responded generously, but so slowly that the impression of foot-dragging never lifted. Germany needlessly annoyed France, the closest of allies, by repeatedly failing to consult it before acting. The Biden administration bridled at the Scholz team’s stubborn insistence that Germany would send tanks to Ukraine only if America did the same.
Chief among the praetorian guard that surrounds the chancellor is Wolfgang Schmidt, a former lawyer who has been Mr Scholz’s right-hand man for 20 years, starting with local politics in their hometown of Hamburg. So close is the odd couple—one big and bearded, the other bald and compact—that a columnist tellingly tagged them “Wolaf”.
Others in Mr Scholz’s core line-up include Steffen Hebestreit, his official spokesman; Jörg Kukies, his top economic adviser and go-to person for European affairs; and Jens Plötner, a smooth former diplomat who serves as his foreign-policy adviser. Although the inner circle is male-dominated, Mr Scholz is reputed to encourage women colleagues. His office manager, Jeanette Schwamberger, an economist who held the same job in his finance ministry, often joins her boss on foreign trips.
But the tightness of the chancellor’s circle can both make it impermeable to useful information and create a siege mentality. His lieutenant, Mr Schmidt, despite posing as a genial friend of the press, tends to blame journalists for twisting the truth rather than admit that the chancellery might have communicated poorly or put forward flawed policies. The fact that Mr Schmidt himself holds so much sway could be a problem.
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