Scholz or Merkel?
In Italy there is a tendency to mummify titles, so if you have been president once you are always president, so I am not surprised by the difficulty of politicians and the mass media in asking, or expecting, that Merkel takes care of the Ukrainian problem.
But the point is: why should Merkel succeed where Scholz failed? And why did Putin almost seem to respect her?
Let's start with the M factor, that is Merkel. The characteristic that Putin "feared" was his uncontrollability. He was able to decide, first announcing it to the press and then bringing it to parliament, to welcome the Syrian refugees. Poof, from today to tomorrow.
Nor did economic issues hold her back too much: after Fukushima, she did nothing but sign a decree to decommission all nuclear power plants. Pouf. From today to tomorrow. "I decide, then the technicians will take care of solving the problem".
In all likelihood, if she had been in government, the risk for Putin was that Merkel would decide out of the blue, literally, to do away with Russian gas. As I have shown, it is only 6% of the German industrial mix:
(Moreover the Fraunhofer gives it even lower: https://www.ise.fraunhofer.de/en/press-media/press-releases/2021/german-net-electricity-generation-in-first-half- of-2021-decline-in-renewables-due-to-weak-winds.html )
Surprisingly, they have struck a deal with Russian coal, so you should know where it comes from.
That is to say, what kept Putin in check was the unpredictability and indifference with which Merkel made epochal decisions. It is the only kind of personality for which Putin has any respect.
Let's get to the sore point: Scholz, or the Scholz government. Scholz has the bad luck of having a bogus party, but of those who, in order to demonstrate that they have nothing to do with communism, have acquaintances with the most sinister speculators. But it also has a percentage of sympathizers for Russia. The Soviet one. But if there are samovars, even today's one.
To these are added the Greens, who, although they have tried to create a serious leadership, are still a Popular Front of Judea: even in this case, the party has a pragmatic and an idealistic soul. The idealist one is made up of a majestic pile of idiots.
Then there is the complete opposite, that is, a guy from FDP, a party that in fact today is the equivalent of the American tea party. I don't say it, they take the piss like this:
This produces a government of "undecided about everything" which is typical of left-wing crooks: thanks to their indecision, a Germany that had overcome the first waves of covid best of all fell to the failure of the vaccination campaign, and on Ukraine they are giving us a good shit. Not for nothing, literally nothing has yet been seen of the promised reforms. In the face of 100 days.
This is typical of the fact that, historically, the CDU has governed better. Both local administrations and the government in general. And it took the Schröder / Gazprom scandal to make the leftists understand (if anything they understand) that Schröder was not that enlightened progressive who was sold in Europe.
Now the skeptics will come and say “but Scholz has announced that he will spend 100 billion more on defense, and that German foreign policy will now change.
Yes, he announced it. But not done.
Buying anything from the state goes through a procurement process, just like large corporations. For historical reasons, the government must ask both the Bundersat and the Bundestag for a vote to buy weapons, worth more than 28 million euros.
The rest of the process is managed by the Bundesamt für Ausrüstung, Informationstechnik und Nutzung der Bundeswehr (BAAINBw) ( https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bundesamt_für_Ausrüstung,_Informationstechnik_und_Nutzung_der_Bundeswehr , which would agility of their procedures. Just the fact that they need 6,800 people makes us understand a lot.
But in any case, of these 100 billion purchases, nothing has been seen in parliament. It is said that Germany wants to buy the F-35s, but to replace the Tornadoes, which were used to shoot US atomic weapons. (As in Italy) And when I see the German greens vote to drop atomic bombs, it will freeze hell.
BUT, I repeat: since there is no trace of real bills, nor any request from the BAAINBw, in fact Scholz has only spoken. If they are working hard and the result is nothing in times of crisis, well, the BAAINBw is working.
Even the increase in military spending "over 2%" has not been seen.
And it is mainly for this reason that Putin is NOT afraid of Scholz: Scholz can announce things, but then he cannot do them. While Merkel took a long time, or she acted suddenly, but then she did.
I can't tell you if this assault came waiting for Merkel to be gone, or waiting for Trump to be gone, or just for other reasons.
But if you tell me Putin waited for Merkel to leave, I can believe you. If you tell me that Scholz or Merkel is the same for Putin, I would say no.
In any case, it is good to repeat it: today Angela Merkel is a private citizen. He has no offices, neither political nor party.
So, (I say this to Renzi and to all those who continue to mention him), since it does not happen in all countries that the former president remains president for life, you will have to get over it.