In a stunning political drama unfolding in Europe’s most powerful nation, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s leadership hangs by a thread as his own party holds emergency talks about replacing him โ while he’s away at the G20 summit in Rio.
The bombshell? Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, Germany’s most popular politician and the man steering Berlin’s massive Ukraine support, has suddenly emerged as the party’s potential new champion. When asked if he’d take the top job, Pistorius coyly replied he could “rule out becoming pope” โ but nothing else.
With less than 100 days until snap elections, the pressure is boiling over. Senior Social Democrats are privately panicking about a “dreadful defeat” under Scholz’s leadership, with former party boss Sigmar Gabriel warning they could crash below 15% if they don’t make a change โ and fast.
Meanwhile, Scholz seems to be living in a different reality. “I can’t complain about the support from the party leadership,” he declared from Rio, even as his party’s power brokers were meeting behind closed doors without him. While some loyalists in Hamburg and Bremen still back him, regional leaders are reporting overwhelming support for Pistorius in their districts.
The timing couldn’t be more dramatic. After Scholz’s three-way coalition collapsed on November 6, Germany’s political establishment has been scrambling. Now, as one newspaper puts it, the party faces an impossible choice: risk a “chancellor putsch” mid-campaign, or stick with a leader whose “communication weaknesses” and “eroding power” could spell disaster.
As one senior party official put it: “We’re currently in an undesirable state of flux.” The question now isn’t if the party will act โ but when.
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