German elections, D – 15: the Laschet camp hardens its tone against the social democrat Olaf Scholz

With the approach of the German legislative elections of September 26, The world keeps the campaign log. A daily update, with events, images, polls, clips, slogans, figures and keywords that allow you to follow and experience this electoral competition at the end of which Angela Merkel will leave power, after sixteen years in the chancellery.

At the CDU-CSU, the tone clearly hardened against the SPD candidate, Olaf Scholz, in the space of 48 hours. During the Bavarian CSU congress on Friday, September 10, in Nuremberg, its president Markus Söder called to block the one he described as “Chancellor of the debt” (Schuldenkanzler).

The day before, Paul Ziemiak, the secretary general of the CDU, accused Olaf Scholz of “Wanting to create a union of debts and transfers in which German taxpayers, pensioners and savers will be at the mercy of the debts of other countries”.

“Mr. Scholz wants a debt union, Mr. Scholz wants a weak euro. (…) Mr. Scholz wants a banking union in which the customers of German regional savings banks end up in the nets of banks which will make profits in France or Italy ”, had also affirmed Friedrich Merz (CDU), head of the economy pole of the campaign of the conservative Armin Laschet, on Welt TV.

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In Slovenia, on Friday, for a meeting of the European Union’s economy and finance ministers, Olaf Scholz answered them indirectly by giving a speech all that is more “German”: “Everyone knows that we have to go back to the stability criteria, but everyone also knows that this requires a transition [et] all this is possible within the framework of the existing rules ”, he assured.

On Friday, the CDU-CSU found another angle of attack against the Social Democratic candidate after the premises of his finance ministry were raided the day before as part of an investigation into the non-transmission to the justice of elements relating to alleged money laundering. Conducted since February 2020, these investigations target the Central Office for Investigation of Financial Transactions (FIU), based in Cologne and responsible for combating money laundering. It is placed under the supervision of the Ministry of Finance, which Olaf Scholz has headed since 2018.

Reacting to these searches, the candidate of the SPD was annoyed by explaining that the investigators could have made their requests “In writing”. Words deemed inappropriate by Armin Laschet: “When his ministry is raided, telling the prosecution what it should have done is a method that only has its place in populist regimes,” commented the CDU-CSU candidate.

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