Voters lash out at Olaf Scholz at a campaign event
Speaking at a forum in Brandenburg, Olaf Scholz said that Germany will continue to provide military support to Ukraine, but will not allow German weapons to be fired at targets in Russia. Scholz was met by an angry crowd ahead of the elections in the region coming up in a week's time. The German chancellor had earlier been asked by a party colleague not to take part in the campaign in Brandenburg.
Germany will not allow Ukraine to fire German long-range weapons into Russian territories, Olaf Scholz said at a public forum in Prenzlau, Brandenburg. The chancellor accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of endangering Russia’s future by invading Ukraine.
„The war is foolish even from Russia’s perspective,”
Scholz said. Germany will continue to provide military aid to Ukraine so that the invaded country does not collapse, but German weapons cannot be fired at Russia, Scholz said. When asked why Germany supports Ukraine, „a country that has destroyed German infrastructure”, Scholz described the Nord Stream pipeline sabotage as an act of terrorism and said he wants the perpetrators to be brought to justice in Germany.
The chancellor was ‘greeted’ by hundreds of protesters in the settlement, calling on him to resign without delay.
Angemessene Begrüßung für Olaf Scholz heute bei seinem Besuch in Prenzlau! Scholz muss weg! pic.twitter.com/usfEOSIK4O
— René Springer (@Rene_Springer) September 14, 2024
Others also saw Scholz as an unwanted guest at the event. His party colleague Dietmar Woidke, the prime minister of Brandenburg, explicitly asked Olaf Scholz not to participate in the campaign. But the Social Democrat chancellor did appear – albeit at the invitation of Bundestag member Stefan Zierke. From the outset, Scholz met with a kind of polite hostility, with most questions focusing on the migration crisis.
„Hundreds of thousands of people have arrived in Germany in recent years. In some parts of the country, people hardly speak German any more. Chancellor, when will this stop? Where is the limit?”
a local resident asked.
„Our prosperity would be unthinkable without immigration. If we simply say we don’t want anyone, then our country will go under,”
Scholz answered. As is known, a quarter of Germans now have migratory backgrounds, which is presumably a concern for the person asking the question.
A woman complained about the shortage of teachers, a man about the gap between the rich and the poor that has been widening for decades. An entrepreneur was unhappy about border checks making it difficult for workers to commute across the nearby border with Poland. A former soldier who served in Kosovo demanded guarantees for the survival of the nearby Schwedt refinery, which is struggling to stay afloat due to the sanctions against Russia.
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