If if not now, who if not us. Scholz described his vision of a united Europe in Prague • RESPECT
The Prague chief prosecutor, a German journalist, a Czech journalist, a leading academic expert on Germany and a group of Czech and foreign students will meet… That’s not how the joke starts, it’s a description of visitors seated next to each other in a corner of Prague’s Karolina, where they gathered on Monday morning to listening to Olaf Scholz’s speech.
The German chancellor arrived in Prague for his first official visit since taking office, and the European media wrote in advance about the “long-awaited speech”. Foreign interest in what Scholz will present was evident from the large number of German journalists who came to Prague with him. In the corridors before the speech, insiders are having a lively discussion about what can be learned from Scholz (a lot) and how emotional his speech will be (a little).
The great interest in the “Prague speech” is logical. Despite the fact that Europe is experiencing the biggest security crisis since the Second World War, strong Germany is not a leader who confidently points the way forward. front, Germany seems rather embarrassed in recent months. The ball on the leg weakening Germany’s position is on Russian gas. Although Germany has been intensively trying to put an end to it in recent months, it is damaging its reputation. Where Germany used to play a major role, today it is much more involved in the debate the Baltic or Eastern European states come in. In addition, the German chancellor rather avoids publicity and the media, and the speech was thus a great opportunity to present the German position in more detail.
Scholz seemed to be aware of Germany’s weakened position on the European stage. He repeatedly emphasized that he wanted to listen to the perspectives of other states and look for common European progress – after all, he did not deliver an important speech at home, but on foreign soil. “I offer food for thought here, not ready-made German solutions,” he assured.
In terms of rhetorical skills, Scholz is a very different type of politician than, for example, Barack Obama or, on the European stage, Emanuel Macron. Instead of a soaring speech that would have carried the audience away, he presented – in his own words – a “strategic update”. In the nearly hour-long speech, however, a number of interesting and sometimes quite specific opinions were voiced in which direction Scholz wants to take the EU.
First, the German chancellor clearly supports the necessity of reform and changes in European institutions – that is, something for which, for example, the Czechia has long supported skepticism. “I strongly support the enlargement of the EU to include Ukraine, the Western Balkan states, Moldova and eventually Georgia. But the EU with 36 states will simply look different. Ukraine is not Luxembourg, Portugal perceives problems differently than North Macedonia,” he said.
According to him, in order for the enlarged EU to function effectively, changes will be needed in all EU institutions. the parliament should recalculate how many deputies are allocated to individual states, the European Commission in some cases let two commissioners manage one portfolio so that each state keeps its own commissioner, but there is no excessive fragmentation of the European agenda – and the European Council should in some cases cancel veto power to individual states. The Czech government is also dealing with proposals to abolish the right of veto during its presidency, and the German chancellor has made it clear where his cabinet stands on this.
Second, Schol projects both the strengthening of defense capacities within NATO and the building of European defense projects. He specifically mentioned, for example, the special European air defense system, for which Germany would like to take responsibility and which, according to Scholz, regional neighbors could also join. So, for example, the Czechia; and given that the Czechs and Germans both plan to buy American F-35 fighter jets, there is scope for cooperation and coordination.
Thirdly, in his speech, Scholz did not neglect a topic that Germany is traditionally closer to than things like armaments – that is, the budget. “Apart from migration, few things have divided us as much as fiscal policy,” he admitted, “but ideology must give way to pragmatism.” Here, too, one could see the shift that German politics has been experiencing in recent years. While in defense it is moving towards a tougher stance, on the contrary, in terms of borrowing, it is loosening its position.
The clearest example was the creation of a joint fund for post-pandemic recovery, where Germany agreed to take on joint debt, an unthinkable measure until then. And although even in Prague Scholz talked about the need to come up with a solution to get the growing debt of individual states under control, he added in one breath that he knows that Europeans expect, for example, faster measures against climate change – that is, things that will cost money.
And fourthly, but briefly, Scholz also spoke about the situation in Poland and Hungary and problems with compliance with the rule of law. “We should support the European Commission so that it can solve problems. I would not like to see disputes about the rule of law going all the way to the European courts,” he said in a compromise.
Although it was a very technical speech full of political details from the party, Karolin gave a European speech, which the German chancellor peppered with specifically Czech references – to the Velvet Revolution, student strikes, Kafka, Kundera or Masaryk. and the contours of the European Union, which Scholz would like to build, were quite clear: more transnational, unified, capable of independent existence in the economic and military spheres. “When if not now, who if not us,” Scholz said in Czech. “Forgive my pronunciation, but I really want to shout this across Europe,” Scholz concluded his speech. But as is typical for the German chancellor, there was of course no real raising of the voice.