Olaf Scholz, Germany's silent chancellor

"Look, there's our chancellor, Olaf Scholz," a woman says excitedly, pushing two boys about 10 years old past the press photographers to the front. 

"The little bald guy?" one of the boys asks, peering over the black barrier tape at two men and a woman standing a few meters away beside a farm vehicle, talking about the fully automated strawberry harvest.

Cordoned-off walkways provided a wide berth for the chancellor at this year's Green Week, a big agriculture fair in Berlin.

There was also something symbolic about the physical distance. For weeks, if not months, many citizens have had the feeling that their chancellor is not quite there, that his presence is barely felt. Since December 2021, Scholz has led a three-party government, including his center-left Social Democrats (SPD), Greens, and the business-focused Free Democrats (FDP). It has not been easy.

Never before has a German government had to deal with so many problems. Starting with the Russian war against Ukraine, which made energy scarce and expensive and brought on inflation. The state intervened with financial aid, but now the public coffers are empty.

The latest to feel the pinch are farmers, who have seen fuel subsidies for their tractors and farm equipment cut.

This is driving farmers onto the streets, and many others have joined their protests: Craftsmen complain of excessive costs and too much bureaucracy. Railway drivers go on strike because they want to earn more money and work less.

And what about Scholz and his government? What are they doing about it? In the eyes of the public, very little.

Only one in five is satisfied with Scholz

The SPD, Greens and FDP have already achieved much of what they set out to do in their coalition agreement. But there has also been a lot of quarreling, especially between the FDP and the Greens. Scholz usually stays out of it, and that is what people remember.

In mid-January, DW conducted a random survey on the streets of Berlin. When asked about Scholz, one woman said, "People don't really feel listened to. It feels like all prices are going through the roof. There's a feeling that it's not really worth living in Germany anymore."

According to the opinion research institute infratest-dimap, only 19% of voters are still satisfied with Scholz. No chancellor has been this unpopular since the institute began polling in 1997 when Helmut Kohl was chancellor — he was voted out of office a year later.

"People simply need to be told upfront that there is going to be much to contend with and things may stay that way," said a woman interviewed by DW.

But that is exactly what Scholz is not doing. The chancellor only speaks up when he finds it necessary to do so. When he does make a public statement, it is always brief, sober, and factual. His messages usually try to appease the public, assuring them everything will be fine. But it hasn't been convincing.

Of course, there are serious problems, Marcel Fratzscher, president of the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW) in Berlin, told DW. Olaf Scholz must make this transparent.

"He must speak honestly and openly about what the government can and cannot achieve. He must present a vision and also show humility. First and foremost, it's about addressing the people, gaining their trust, including that of entrepreneurs."

More humility and better management of expectations are required. It is not so much that Scholz is inactive, watching the country's many crises unfold from his office. According to the Chancellor's Office, when compared to his predecessor, Angela Merkel, Scholz has made a greater effort to connect with citizens.

However, this has largely involved targeted and controlled encounters, whether it be attending Green Week, welcoming business leaders at the Chancellery, or visiting a hospital or company.

The chancellor's visits in late December and early January to areas devastated by flooding, and to the opening game of the German handball team in the European Championships showed what can happen when he meets ordinary citizens. Olaf Scholz was insulted, booed, and jeered.

The chancellor's messages are simply not getting through. Ursula Münch, Director of the Academy for Political Education in Tutzing on Lake Starnberg, told DW. 

"After all, a lot of visibility doesn't equal a lot of impact. Especially for a chancellor that people fear is not as assertive, not as visible as he initially claimed to be."

Münch is alluding to something that Scholz once said: "Whoever orders leadership from me will get it." In the eyes of the public, a chancellor has to be able to lead. But in the coalition of SPD, Greens, and FDP, the chancellor sees himself more as a moderator than a boss.

In the eyes of his critics, the chancellor also lacks leadership on the international stage. He was absent from the critical World Economic Forum in Davos last week without explanation.

No wonder that resentment is also growing in the chancellor's own party, the Social Democrats: The magazine Der Spiegel is already reporting on secret meetings to discuss plans for the much-loved defense minister Boris Pistorius to run for the SPD in the next elections in the fall of 2025 instead of Scholz. What did Scholz have to say about such rumors? No comment.

This article was originally written in German.

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