The entweder-oder question

Photo by Ricardo Gomez Angel on Unsplash

Dear Reader,

After Olaf Scholz came in for hefty criticism over his plan to hold a snap election five months after the collapse of his government, we now have certainty on the date. 

Germans will go to the polls on February 23rd. It is not exactly the moon landing but it is the earliest date that the country’s lead-footed bureaucracy could cope with.

Yesterday, we were given our first taste of what the parties are going to try to sell us in the coming months.

Addressing the Bundestag over the collapse of his government, Scholz quickly moved into campaign mode.

One question, he said, would be fundamental during the election: Should Germany finance Ukraine at the expense of its own citizens and its own future?

"My answer is 'no'!’” Scholz declared. “It can’t be the case, it must not be the case, that support for Ukraine means making cuts to pensions, health care and elderly care.”

He, Scholz, has already found a way to secure domestic welfare and interna…