Asked this summer whether he was too unemotional, Olaf Scholz retorted that he was “running for the job of chancellor, not circus director”.
It was a typical rejoinder from a man so cool and occasionally robotic that he’s been nicknamed the “Scholzomat”. In some countries this might be a handicap, but in Germany it is a virtue. With just two weeks to go until the country’s federal elections, Scholz is emerging as the odds-on favourite to succeed Angela Merkel as chancellor.
It’s an extraordinary development. Just a few months ago Scholz’s Social Democrats were languishing at between 14 and 16 per cent in the polls. Now they are on 25, and have left Merkel’s centre-right CDU/CSU in the dust.
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