Scholz Steps Up Trump Criticism in Comments Over Borders

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(Bloomberg) — German Chancellor Olaf Scholz amped up on his criticism of US President-elect Donald Trump’s comments on the integrity of borders in an animated speech meant to boost the morale of Social Democrats ahead of a federal election next month.

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In power since 2021 as the senior member of a now-defunct three-party coalition, support for the SPD has slumped as an early election looms for Europe’s largest economy on February 23

Speaking at a party congress in Berlin, Scholz spoke of uncertain times in relations with its key ally, the US, and also pointed to the rise of the far right in neighboring Austria. Both developments showed that a lot was at stake for Germany, the chancellor warned.

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“We are indeed at a crossroads in Germany. If we take a wrong turn in Germany on February 23, we will wake up the next morning in a different country. That must not happen,” Scholz told the SPD delegates. The party congress is expected to later formally nominate Scholz as their top candidate, and adopt the party’s election program.

Turning to Trump’s recent expansionist rhetoric against Greenland and Canada as well as the Panama Canal, Scholz said that those comments coming from the USA give cause for concern.

“The principle of inviolability of borders applies to every country,” Scholz said to loud applause. “That borders are inviolable is a central principle of international law. No country is the backyard of another. No small country should have to fear its big neighbor. That is the core of what we call Western values — our values!”

Scholz attacked plans of the opposition conservatives to lower the corporate tax rate which he said would come at the expense of the working class.

“Who’s going to foot the bill? I’m telling you: The bill will be paid by the ordinary people in this country,” Scholz said. “They will have to accept bitter cuts in public pensions and care.”

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The chancellor triggered the early election — seven months before the scheduled end of his four-year term — when he fired his finance minister in early November in a dispute over more debt-financed government spending for Ukraine, effectively stripping himself of a majority in the lower house of parliament.  

With little more than six weeks until the Feb. 23 federal vote, the main opposition conservatives under Friedrich Merz have a comfortable lead in opinion polls, with the far-right, anti-migration AfD party polling in second place, and Scholz’s SPD trailing in third. 

The center-right CDU/CSU bloc has about 31% support, according to the latest Bloomberg average of recent surveys, with the AfD at about 20%, the SPD 17% and the Greens 12% in fourth. 

A new poll commissioned by the public broadcaster ZDF, though, showed the SPD sliding into fourth place, behind the Greens. 

The election campaign took an unexpected turn a few weeks ago when US tech billionaire Elon Musk decided to wade in on behalf of the AfD. In a series of posts on his X social media site, Musk also disparaged Scholz as an “incompetent fool,” and German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier as an “anti-democratic tyrant.” 

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Musk on Thursday spoke with AfD candidate Alice Weidel on X in what amounted to an unpaid advertisement for the party with the potential to reach millions of potential voters. 

Since it was founded in 2013, the AfD has moved progressively toward the extreme right, garnering increasing support among voters disillusioned with mainstream parties, particularly in Germany’s former communist eastern regions.

The AfD calls for a German exit from the European Union and the euro zone, moves which would unwind decades of political and economic integration. The party also calls for a crackdown on undocumented migrants, including expelling hundreds of thousands of people.  

—With assistance from Angela Cullen.

(Updates with Scholz comments on US, from first paragraph.)

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