Germany’s Scholz stakes re-election bid on ‘normal people’

Chancellor vows to focus on bread-and-butter issues as he secures party nomination

Olaf Scholz was applauded by members of his Social Democratic Party as he launched his campaign for a second term in Berlin. Getty Images

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz made “normal people” the focus of his uphill re-election battle on Saturday as he vowed to focus on bread-and-butter issues to win voters back from right-wing populists.

Mr Scholz urged Germans not to “let ourselves go mad” in difficult times as his Social Democratic Party (SPD) formally elected him as its nominee at a special congress in Berlin. He attacked the far right's anti-immigrant rhetoric as he described newcomers who live and work in the country as “part of Germany”.

There was unrest at a separate meeting of the Elon Musk-backed Alternative for Germany (AfD) party on Saturday, where left-wing politician Nam Duy Nguyen was allegedly knocked unconscious by police while taking part in protests. The AfD plans to adopt a manifesto calling for Syrian refugees to return home, an end to what it calls an “asylum paradise”, and the EU to be replaced with a new “Europe of fatherlands”.

The campaign for a February 23 election – brought forward by seven months after Mr Scholz's three-party coalition collapsed – comes as Donald Trump prepares to return to the White House and just days after a far-right leader was invited to form a coalition in Austria. Mr Scholz said democracies “are strong and resistant when things go well for normal people”.

Riot police clashed with anti-far right demonstrators near the Alternative for Germany (AfD)'s party congress on Saturday. EPA

Stirring up hatred “has never solved a single problem anywhere in the world” and “the huge majority in Germany knows that,” Mr Scholz said in a speech to party members. “Normal people who have a heart and a healthy common sense won't be taken for fools.

“Of course they have concerns at the moment, not only about war, not only about hatred and incitement, but also about rising prices, their job security and the future of our economy. But they know we will only sort all that out if we focus on our strengths, if we stand together, if we link arms, if we don't let ourselves go mad in these highly charged times.”

Polls show the SPD trailing the main centre-right opposition as well as the AfD amid widespread discontent with Mr Scholz's three-year tenure. The chancellor saw off rumblings about replacing him on the SPD ticket after the most likely alternative, Defence Minister Boris Pistorius, said he wasn't interested.

Germany's stagnant economy is a prime voter concern. Mr Scholz called for relaxed borrowing rules to allow investment in schools, railways and clean energy while attacking conservative plans for tax cuts, saying it was “totally wrong” for top earners to pay less for Germany's defence needs. Mr Trump has reiterated demands for Nato members to pay more for their own security.

Migration and extremism are also major issues, not least after six people were killed in a Christmas market attack in Magdeburg, believed to have been perpetrated by a Saudi-born migrant who was critical of Islam. During emergency care for Magdeburg victims it was “irrelevant which country people came from, or what their religion was”, Mr Scholz said.

He said the 30 per cent of people in Germany with a migrant background were “neighbours colleagues, classmates, friends in sports clubs – they are part of Germany too”. The AfD and its anti-immigrant rhetoric have won the high-profile backing of Mr Musk, who has disparaged Mr Scholz as an “incompetent fool”.

A live interview with AfD leader Alice Weidel on Mr Musk's social media site X mainly drew attention for her claim that Adolf Hitler was a communist, when in fact the left was persecuted under the Nazis. SPD chairman Lars Klingbeil described Mr Musk as having a “huge ego and far too much money”.

Alice Weidel, centre, was formally nominated on Saturday as the AfD's candidate for chancellor. Getty Images

Protests delayed the start of the AfD's two-day congress as demonstrators gathered in cold weather to chant slogans such as “no to Nazis”. Organisers said police had hit groups of people and deployed pepper spray before delegates formally nominated Ms Weidel as the AfD's candidate for chancellor.

The AfD's draft manifesto says Germany should treat Syria as a safe country and begin the process of stripping refugees of their protection status. It calls for a “deportation offensive” covering all illegal migrants and foreign extremists.

The draft says the EU can no longer be reformed and should be replaced with an economic “community of interests”. It says Germany should continue burning fossil fuels and resume natural gas imports from Russia.