The claim

Chancellor Olaf Scholz makes fun of the Germans' fears. He finds it hilarious that someone has just switched from electricity to gas heating.

Our conclusion

If you also look at the baker's question and Scholz's entire answer to it, it becomes clear: the Chancellor is taking the concerns seriously. The tragicomic nature of the anecdote told only makes him smile briefly – guiltily.

++ The Chancellor laughs at people ++ Chancellor laughs at Bäcker: The unbelievable moment in which Scholz mocks our fears ++ Scholz is having a lot of fun with people who have switched from electricity to gas heating ++ Scholz: Union accuses the Chancellor “Hame” before: Is he laughing at a citizen in need? ++ How little intuition can one have? ++ A baker cries – and Scholz giggles about it: This is how our rulers mock the citizens! ++ Olaf Scholz laughs like Armin Laschet in the Ahr Valley! ++

The German federal government regularly invites the country's people to citizens' dialogue. Since Olaf Scholz became Chancellor and head of the traffic light coalition, so-called Chancellor Talks have taken place four times. The last one took place on November 1st in Gifhorn, Lower Saxony. The approximately 150 citizens in the audience were able to ask the Federal Chancellor their questions for 90 minutes Scholz answered questions about energy supply, climate change, the 9-euro ticket, the war in Ukraine, as well as more personal things such as his sleep rhythm and the Chancellor's everyday life.

Malice or concern?

A short clip of the event's video caused a stir on social media. Scholz told a short anecdote that is certainly tragicomic in the current energy crisis: “Someone came to me the other day and said: Mr. Scholz, I have just converted my electric oven to a gas oven. And I didn't know how sad I should look." The Chancellor's expression changed from concerned to smiling to embarrassed.

It is particularly the Union politicians who pounce on the clip. “The Chancellor is laughing at people,” writes the former General Secretary of the CDU, Paul Ziemiak, on Twitter. The Thuringian CDU chairman Mario Voigt calls the behavior “disrespectful” and speaks of “malice”. Criticism of this approach comes from the Greens and of course Scholz's party, the SPD.

If you - like the speaker Timo Konrad or the government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit - do not look at the short excerpt in isolation, but rather look at the entire question from the audience and Scholz's answer, a different picture emerges. The entire event can be streamed on the federal government's website .

The context of the video snippet

A bakery entrepreneur complains [from minute 13:38] about the increasing bureaucracy in Germany and the rising costs that are burdening his company. Rising costs mean lower profits and therefore lower taxes for the state. And he wants to know: “Is politics always aware that small and medium-sized businesses generate a large part of the money, which politics can then spend again based on demands?” Scholz is more specific in his answer [from 15:31]. , thematic arc and first addresses the high energy prices and what the government intends to do about it:

I hope that what has been decided now and what we will put in place tomorrow will also lay the foundations for you to be able to deal with the terribly high energy prices.

Recently someone came to me and said: Mr. Scholz, I just switched my electric oven to a gas oven and I didn't realize how sad I should look. Yes.

But to be honest, it's a big challenge, so I just want to say: Let's do something about it now. And if we now create a defensive shield with 200 billion euros for this year, the next year and the year after that, then that is borrowing that we are taking out to help the economy and citizens through this difficult time.

At 4:25 p.m. Olaf Scholz then answers the question “whether politicians know what contribution small and medium-sized businesses make to financing the community”: His assessment is largely cross-party: Yes.

Scholz responded to the bakery entrepreneur’s question in a matter-of-fact tone. During the anecdote he briefly switches from concerned to smiling back to concerned and then continues the rest of the answer in a matter-of-fact tone. The audience finds the anecdote neither to laugh nor as a reason to complain about a derailment. The bakery entrepreneur doesn't seem offended either, but listens carefully to the explanations and nods in confirmation to the Chancellor, as two short cuts [at 16:24 and 16:57] show.

CONCLUSION

The context makes it clear that Chancellor Olaf Scholz is not making fun of the bakery entrepreneur. Nor does he mock people who are worried about rising energy costs. Whether the short anecdote is appropriate for such a serious topic can certainly be questioned. What Scholz wants to express is clear. But whether the message reaches everyone in the same way is a completely different question.


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Notes:
1) This content reflects the current state of affairs at the time of publication. The reproduction of individual images, screenshots, embeds or video sequences serves to discuss the topic. 2) Individual contributions were created through the use of machine assistance and were carefully checked by the Mimikama editorial team before publication. ( Reason )