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Olaf Scholz

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2026-02-23
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2026-02-23
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  1. “Think that there is a vision. That politicians are willing to follow that sort of vision That if they are busy enough, they will look into the details so that the bureaucrats are not allowed.”

    2026-02-23 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 177. Olaf Scholz: Putin, Power, and Far-Right Populism · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  2. “Looks like that. Judgment of nearly every political party in Europe is that they will not follow the way, even the very conservative ones not discussing leaving the union. Second, I think That it is up to the British to decide how they want to have their relations with the European Union, but UK can ever rely on Germany that if there is the wish for bettering the cooperation, we will be on their side.”

    2026-02-23 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 177. Olaf Scholz: Putin, Power, and Far-Right Populism · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  3. “I know many conservative politicians that truly hearted think they will never work together with some right wing, right populist politicians. And if they look around, they see all conservatist parties failed that went the path. So it is not a good advice to do it this way. And it's important for democracy. So I hope and I think they will not.”

    2026-02-23 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 177. Olaf Scholz: Putin, Power, and Far-Right Populism · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  4. “Government decisions at court, but we have to reduce the aspects that should be controlled because we have to make it easier to have a decision on a new, let's say, street, railway, university, hospital, port, airport, or so on.”

    2026-02-23 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 177. Olaf Scholz: Putin, Power, and Far-Right Populism · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  5. “Big economic rise of Germany and America, United States in the 19th century was because of the engineers and the entrepreneur working with them. Sometimes they were the same. And if we look, for instance, at China, it is today a country run by engineers with not enough rules to save people, yes, but possibly in the 60s in North America and in Europe the lawyers were too successful. In creating procedures for investment that make it so difficult to succeed. And the people here in our country see that in other places of the world they build a whole metropolitan railway system or a whole national railway system in 20 years, whereas we build a new railway line of 20 kilometers during this 20 years. We should go back to the situation we had in the 60s. There has to be the chance for controlling.”

    2026-02-23 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 177. Olaf Scholz: Putin, Power, and Far-Right Populism · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  6. “This is since thousands of years the main question of those who are having or had relevant power that too many of them could not imagine that they will die earlier or later as we all and that it is a small part of their life, maybe relevant, but that it is not forever. And we have to understand this as men, as human, that we are just a short time on earth.”

    2026-02-23 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 177. Olaf Scholz: Putin, Power, and Far-Right Populism · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  7. “Already when I became the mayor of the city of Hamburg, the 198th mayor of the city state of Hamburg, and seeing all the pictures of my predecessors in dress of this Spanish court, I thought you will be longer an ex-mayor as a mayor. Having a job should mean that you are absolutely sure that it will earlier or later end and that you will continue to have quite a proper life, that if you make it good you are a person talking to others about the problems of our time. But that's it. I'm always looking at others and what impressed me very much was this short TV film we saw about Putin and she discussing about expanding lifetime.”

    2026-02-23 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 177. Olaf Scholz: Putin, Power, and Far-Right Populism · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  8. “Minim About yourself inside Germany. We give you a minimum wage. I worked in this job for 13 years before I entered parliament in 1998. And I visited a lot of factories since then again as a mayor, as a minister, as a chancellor. I can tell you that in all the years you can always see what the increasing of productivity makes. So we have a chance for having production sites in our countries if they are on the highest standard of productivity using news technologies and we should be able to have enough jobs for us. In our countries. I think the whole European Union has a workforce of approximately 230 million people. If you look at China, it's much more. So having enough jobs for our people is something that is very manageable and well-paid jobs too.”

    2026-02-23 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 177. Olaf Scholz: Putin, Power, and Far-Right Populism · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  9. “That we should be ready to pay for the wages of those working there. And we should not ask to have prices that could not be managed and could not be get without too low payment for those working.”

    2026-02-23 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 177. Olaf Scholz: Putin, Power, and Far-Right Populism · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  10. “This solution, but it is part of it. You cannot say to someone, I respect you and he is not able to pay for his living costs. And we should be ready, especially when we are well paid managers, scientists, or as myself a lawyer. We should be ready to pay more when we go to a shop.”

    2026-02-23 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 177. Olaf Scholz: Putin, Power, and Far-Right Populism · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  11. “Together with my party as Sister party here in UK. I fought very much for implementing a system of minimum wages. So this is not a very good wage, but it is much better as it was before. And I'm very much in favor of increasing it. And it was part of my last two campaigns. And we succeeded again in increasing the minimum wage in Germany, which has an impact on the whole ladder of wages for many people because if the minimum wage rises, the others rise too.”

    2026-02-23 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 177. Olaf Scholz: Putin, Power, and Far-Right Populism · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  12. “Have the question of asylum, where we have to be ready to support people that are in danger, and especially as a German, I have to tell that we are so happy that UK, for instance, gave so many people a chance to survive the Nazi dictatorship and the fascism. And this is something we should have in mind when we look at others that are in danger. And we have to manage the question of irregular migration, which will not end as a task for the next 20, 30, 40 years because there is a world where so many people are... Today, living in economic circumstances that lets them think of moving to other places as many Europeans did when the settlers moved to the United States, today now United States.”

    2026-02-23 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 177. Olaf Scholz: Putin, Power, and Far-Right Populism · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  13. “I'm sure that most people in our societies, also here in the UK, understand that nothing would work if not we would have had the advantage of especially work migration to our countries in the past. We have different Traditions and history on migration. British is very much influenced by the former empire. Similar to France, for instance, and Germany, it was the request for. Labor coming from Portugal, Spain, Greece, Yugoslavia, Turkey, Tunisia, Morocco in the 60s. Where the starting point, so we have different histories. But in the end, the people stay, they live with their families, they are going to school, the children or grandchildren make great careers in our society it works. And this is why I think that the question of citizenship is essential and there is a readiness of the most of the people to see it like I explain it here.”

    2026-02-23 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 177. Olaf Scholz: Putin, Power, and Far-Right Populism · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  14. “When I speak about respect Speak about how we look at each other in a society. You can do it very psychologically, be always a very friendly man, be polite to others and things like that. But this is good also, but when I speak about respect, it is on the basis of how we look at each other and our professions and how we are contributing to society.”

    2026-02-23 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 177. Olaf Scholz: Putin, Power, and Far-Right Populism · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  15. “And that's, I think, a problem. And we have to change this as a mood. Let me come back to the right populist in this case. They have a wrong answer. Searching for enemies. So in times of crisis, there is always one that is offering this answer. Searching for enemies in their own country, searching for enemies abroad. But solving the questions of our society has nothing to do with searching for enemies, it has something to do with being on high level technological advancement in the society, in working for good infrastructure, for growth, which is a big question for me, and speeding up investment into infrastructure and things like that.”

    2026-02-23 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 177. Olaf Scholz: Putin, Power, and Far-Right Populism · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  16. “We see it in some countries like the United States, and it's also a question, I think, here it is also depending on the money your parents can spend on university, which is not the case in every other country, for instance, not in Germany. But we also have the question of dealing with the fact that we have to find a way how we unite again after the success of education campaigns in the past decades. And we will not be able to go back. It would be a big catastrophe for our economy. But if one of your friends has a son or a daughter after a very good education at school, decides to become a baker. If this is your profession, do it. It's a good job. For thousands of years, we needed bakers and we will do in the futures.”

    2026-02-23 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 177. Olaf Scholz: Putin, Power, and Far-Right Populism · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  17. “Yes, and you see that there are a lot of authors now discussing the question, many of them referring to Michael Young, for instance. The tyranny of marriage by Michael Sandal. We have a new book which is discussing the meritocracy trap. Branko Milanovich, a very good economist, is writing about the new elite in the United States, which is rich and having assets on the one side and on the other side well educated.”

    2026-02-23 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 177. Olaf Scholz: Putin, Power, and Far-Right Populism · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  18. “It is a debate about jobs. He is using it for pressing people in other countries to do the one or the other thing. This orange has never proposed and he's absolutely critical about this question. But it has to do with one aspect which is a new phenomenon in modern life that the success of economy makes it feasible that after the ending of colonialization in the 70s, now we are in a phase where many of the countries of the global south will become strong, wealthy and will have a lot of production, which is good, but not everyone is sure if the outcome will be good for us also.”

    2026-02-23 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 177. Olaf Scholz: Putin, Power, and Far-Right Populism · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  19. “You have realized I have not used this argument. We need Society of respect, and this is a cultural habit which we have to evolve, but it's also Question of how we discuss social welfare and things like that. But the main question is that we understand us as equals, that we don't think I'm better as the other. And the second question, this comes to it, is the question of job security if we are looking at all the changes in the world when it comes to technology, when it comes to globalization. If we see the politics with tariffs Trump is making, it has two aspects. The conservative think tankers, for instance Owren Kass, proposed a certain tax, but just for getting jobs back, which to my mind will not work as it is thought. But in the end,”

    2026-02-23 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 177. Olaf Scholz: Putin, Power, and Far-Right Populism · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  20. “standard of living in East Germany has increased so much since reunification. It's much, much richer than some are like Hungary. In terms of the development that's happened, it's extraordinary. And yet the German left often suggest that the reason why people are voting for the FD is because they are socially and economically deprived. But in fact,”

    2026-02-23 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 177. Olaf Scholz: Putin, Power, and Far-Right Populism · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  21. “If someone that is running a hospital looks down to the one that is doing the plumber's job, the society will not work. This has consequences for payment, for security, yes, but much more for the question of respect. And if I go to a restaurant and do not think that those producing my coffee or my meal are equals We will not have the chance of a good society. And this has to be changed. This is my deep conviction. And the most relevant questions for the United States, for the United Kingdom, for Europe and for all the rich countries of the North. Chancellor, just to develop this a bit more. So the AFD is now leading in all the East German states, but the”

    2026-02-23 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 177. Olaf Scholz: Putin, Power, and Far-Right Populism · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  22. “It is a satirical Is written as a social logical book, which it is not. He wrote it in the year of my birth, 1958. And it's explaining the situation of 2033-34. Future to come. But if you read these books, you find all the things that happened to us in the last decades and at this very time. And he was so good in looking into the future what might be one of the outcomes of one of the successes of our society, giving more people opportunities. My view is”

    2026-02-23 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 177. Olaf Scholz: Putin, Power, and Far-Right Populism · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  23. “The second is one of the outcomes of our success when it comes to education. We should not forget that in the 50s just a very small portion of the population had the chance to come to the highest outcome at school and to go to university. Now this is much more people, but we are still one country and we should be. And looking down to others is a new phenomenon of the rich countries which splits our societies. This is why I think, and I used the chance for giving a speech on this at LSE, that we could learn a lot from the book of Michael Young about the rise of the meritocracy because it is explaining what is happening in the United States and in our countries.”

    2026-02-23 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 177. Olaf Scholz: Putin, Power, and Far-Right Populism · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  24. “To some statistic, the big majority of industrial production is now in the global south, completely different to the time before opening China in 79. And so many people think, will there be good and well-paid jobs in 10, 20, 30, 40 years? The answer we could give is yes if we do the right things and jobs with new technologies and that will because of this give the chance of being successful and it is not problematic if there are also wealthy people all over the world and not just in North America and Europe and other places.”

    2026-02-23 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 177. Olaf Scholz: Putin, Power, and Far-Right Populism · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  25. “They are there in Finland, in Sweden, more or less, in Denmark, in Norway, in the Netherlands, in Belgium, in Austria, Germany. We see some of them in Switzerland, we see them in Italy, in Portugal, in Spain. In the United States, United Kingdom. We have to analyze why this is happening. I have two reasons that seem important to me. The first is the success of globalization. Many people react to with some fear about their own future or people that are like them. And we saw it since the beginning of the 80s when a lot of cheap, badly paid industrial production moved to many countries of the global south, especially but not only China.”

    2026-02-23 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 177. Olaf Scholz: Putin, Power, and Far-Right Populism · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  26. “Just say that a party in a democracy must be in favor of democracy and democracy is pluralism. And this means that you cannot get people out of the we that we are as citizens. The second is that we are a lot of doubts that if they would be able to reach power in the one or the other way, they would use this power for not being put out of power by democratic elections later. So these are the two essential questions and all the other things we have to discuss. And coming to the question why there is this rise of right populist parties we see in Germany and Looking from a broader perspective of the whole world to the rich countries.”

    2026-02-23 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 177. Olaf Scholz: Putin, Power, and Far-Right Populism · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  27. “There is a firewall, yes, but it makes sense not for keeping them small because this is a question of political campaigning of political debates, but to avoid that they are going to power. The most important critique I have on the AFD is not about the political position on the one or the other topic. This is Open to debate in a democracy. It is that they are an anti pluralistic party. Anti pluralistic means that they are not accepting that all of us citizens are we. So they create a sort of a we. Which excludes others”

    2026-02-23 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 177. Olaf Scholz: Putin, Power, and Far-Right Populism · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  28. “First, it is necessary to state that they have now approximately 25% in the polls. This is not the majority. All the other people are thinking in a completely different direction This is why we agreed so far, and I hope we will continue to do so that no one will cooperate with this party.”

    2026-02-23 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 177. Olaf Scholz: Putin, Power, and Far-Right Populism · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  29. “Austria are dealing with them. And this is not how it works. There is the European Union for most of the states and there is NATO and this will not end. And no one in the West of Europe, none of the members of NATO and of the European Union, not the UK is planning for going aggressively against Russia. This is not true. So he is accusing the Western states of this strategy they are not following.”

    2026-02-23 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 177. Olaf Scholz: Putin, Power, and Far-Right Populism · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  30. “Many were not surprised about the nature of Russian politics, so we are with good reason member of NATO, as everyone else in NATO. We knew about the necessity of defense and about spending for defense. We have to increase. We had to increase, and we are doing it. But in the end, not too many were naive about the question what Russia is looking for. And I especially was very clear. I used also a speech in St. Petersburg to speak about it, that Russia should not look for going back to Europe of 17th, 18th, 19th. where the big powers of Europe, Russia, England, France, and in the beginning Prussia and Habsburg and later Germany.”

    2026-02-23 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 177. Olaf Scholz: Putin, Power, and Far-Right Populism · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  31. “Demand that this should be an army of 800,000, which is really right the opposite of what he was asking for and many other things. But to come back to this point, this strategy to Europe happens because of the imperial idea of Russia that Putin is following. And he thinks that his country should include Belarus and Ukraine. And he wrote it on papers and it publicly.”

    2026-02-23 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 177. Olaf Scholz: Putin, Power, and Far-Right Populism · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  32. “I think the biggest mistake in politics is done by Putin, who started a war against Ukraine. And as I think I'm deeply convinced today that he planned for this war two years before. And this is very important because there are so many people using, I have to say, Russian narratives about the reasons for the war that are not true. Before the war, we had talks with Putin about the question of NATO membership. And it was clear by all leaders that this will not happen very soon. And it was said publicly and behind the doors in Kiev and Moscow. So everyone knew and especially Putin knew. He was discussing about the size of Ukraine. He was demanding for demilitarization, which is unacceptable. Obviously, but now he is come to this point facing”

    2026-02-23 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 177. Olaf Scholz: Putin, Power, and Far-Right Populism · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  33. “The main competing parties rule together, but due to the outcome of elections we did since then quite often, 2005 to 2009, 2013 to 2014, 2013 to 17. And then again in 2018 after the attempt to form a government of conservatist liberals and Greens did not work. And we started with the next Grand Coalition where I became the vice chancellor, as you reported. It is possible to work together, but it creates a necessity. You should not argue as a campaigner in a way that this is something you cannot imagine. You should be ready for giving the people the idea that life is full of compromises.”

    2026-02-23 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 177. Olaf Scholz: Putin, Power, and Far-Right Populism · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  34. “Read a lot of texts about the debates in the parliamentary faction of the sixties, why nineteen sixty six we don't try to have a coalition with the Liberal Party, and one of the reasons why this did not happen was that the leadership then thought it is too early, the people would not accept, and too many of the conservative elites would from day one try to spoil all the work of the government. So it was... Necessary experience of public and people. They saw us in government, which has not been the case. That a long time in the Federal Republic. And then there was the coalition between the Social Democratic Party and the Liberals up to 1982, and it changed again then with Helmut Kohl, which up to 1998 worked. The next grand coalition, to say it like this was 2005. So, it is not the natural system that”

    2026-02-23 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 177. Olaf Scholz: Putin, Power, and Far-Right Populism · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  35. “The experience of coalition governments we had in the Weimar Republic, but also in the new Democratic Federal Republic of Germany, was easier in the beginning, especially in the Federal Republic, since it was usually a coalition of a big and a small party. So in the case of Germany in the first years and decades, a coalition of the Christian Democratic Union and the Liberal Party. And in 1966, the first grand coalition took place in West Germany. This was the way for the Social Democratic Party to then 1969 be successful in the election campaign. It was”

    2026-02-23 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 177. Olaf Scholz: Putin, Power, and Far-Right Populism · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  36. “We all together should have done more with a stricter regime of sanctions reacting to the Crimean invasion. And we can discuss why so many people thought it's not a critical aspect to have so many gas infrastructure from Russia going to Germany. It's just more pipelines. And the Second World Time, even of critical moments and crises between West and East, it was never a problem with this transport of gas to Germany and to the West. So many thought this would be always the case.”

    2026-02-23 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 177. Olaf Scholz: Putin, Power, and Far-Right Populism · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  37. “The decisions of selling but or allowing Parts of the gas storage infrastructure. Was sold to a Russian company were done before I entered government. This True when it comes to the question of the gas pipelines, they were already built. Or less, but there was a discussion, and I started it because due to my experience as the mayor of Hamburg, I worked since a very long time for having LNG terminals in the coast areas, in the ports of northern Germany. I knew all the projects that were discussed by private entrepreneur. And so when the crisis started, even before the war started, I could go back to this and ask in January 2022 before the war started that we should look at these projects and find a way how we can import gas from other places.”

    2026-02-23 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 177. Olaf Scholz: Putin, Power, and Far-Right Populism · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  38. “Like me, no one really discussed with him. Because it is his decision to go this path, we went on another path and we are going on another path, helping Ukraine to defend its sovereignty against the Russian aggression. And we must be very clear what Putin did. I called a Zeitenwende because he is going against all the agreements we had in the decades before. That borders should not be changed by force. And that is the essential basis for peace in Europe, also in the world and we have to stick to this. And this is why it is a correct decision that we support Ukraine.”

    2026-02-23 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 177. Olaf Scholz: Putin, Power, and Far-Right Populism · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  39. “Had nearly 20 years outside. I have to tell you that there was a small part of the big campaign of Gertrude to become the Chancellor and for us to lead the country saying we are advocating for 40 under 40. So there were the first 40 candidates that were not 40. I was between them because I was just 40 directly before the election. And so I could participate together with the others. Today we have luckily more young candidates for parliament, especially in my party and in the Green Party. But this was not the case at that time.”

    2026-02-23 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 177. Olaf Scholz: Putin, Power, and Far-Right Populism · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  40. “I started in the end of my career as a politician in the youth, but I ended all the things I did in the youth organization. And there were years where I had no political function and just did my job. And this was very helpful for me because there are different careers and I don't say there's the one that is the better way to do it, but it was very helpful for me that I could change my view on things without cameras looking at my face. If you are going directly from the leadership of a youth organization as a very leftish politician in your party, and then you enter parliament, everyone could see how you are changing your views, which obviously should happen if you are dealing with life. It was easier for me because I could just do it. No one was asking.”

    2026-02-23 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 177. Olaf Scholz: Putin, Power, and Far-Right Populism · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  41. “All my time as a lawyer brought me to become a more centrist politician. Because of the reality of life, the necessity of doing pragmatic compromises with employers. I also worked for cooperatives. So I had to do a lot with pragmatic labor movement. And this helped me to look different to the world. It was very important for my career that I stopped doing politics when I left the youth section of the party quite early.”

    2026-02-23 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 177. Olaf Scholz: Putin, Power, and Far-Right Populism · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  42. “This is a great luck that we had the chance to unify again. I think many people would not have expected that this could happen at this time. Some were hoping that there will be a time where we could reach this aim, but it happened then so fast. And I'm still lucky about it. And many people in former GDR also because they gained democracy.”

    2026-02-23 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 177. Olaf Scholz: Putin, Power, and Far-Right Populism · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  43. “West of Germany had the opportunity to gain democracy after World War II due to the British and the Americans and France, a functioning working democracy and a very successful economy, but it was much more complicated in the east of Germany because it was a communist dictatorship.”

    2026-02-23 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 177. Olaf Scholz: Putin, Power, and Far-Right Populism · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  44. “At that time, I was near to the positions of Schroeder when I entered Parliament and shortly later, I became the General Secretary of the Party supporting his political activities. It was a debate about how we can deal with the questions of modernity. It was how to create growth and modernize society, which worked quite well and which we did with a lot of attempts at that time. So there was a debate about Neue Mitte in the Social Democratic Party. It was not at the center of the debate. It was something that some people criticized, some others supported, but in the end it was part also of the campaign which made it successful for him to become the Chancellor.”

    2026-02-23 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 177. Olaf Scholz: Putin, Power, and Far-Right Populism · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  45. “Very difficult to understand this from Germany. And this is also due to the fact that the party system in the United Kingdom is completely different. The parliamentary faction is much more stronger, much stronger as it is in the German system with all the parties. We were formed as parties running for seats in parliament and the party is in the end taking the decisions. And it is not as it is mostly in the conservative party here that parliamentary faction is the center. In labour, it was always mixed due to history, but it was not like it is. And wars in Germany at that time, the Social Democratic Party had one million members and no one was member through membership in the trade union, but only directly entering the party.”

    2026-02-23 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 177. Olaf Scholz: Putin, Power, and Far-Right Populism · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  46. “No, it was not about NATO, it was about missiles newly established. And there were a lot of other questions that were then relevant, but it was peace movement and the starting point of people that were criticizing climate change, but mostly the question of using nuclear power.”

    2026-02-23 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 177. Olaf Scholz: Putin, Power, and Far-Right Populism · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  47. “It was really criticizing capitalism and thinking about how we can get out of the problems caused by this. We discussed a lot of questions that were very important at that time. It was about nuclear energy and its use. We posed it. It was about”

    2026-02-23 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 177. Olaf Scholz: Putin, Power, and Far-Right Populism · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  48. “Yes, and when I was the mayor, I changed it. I profited a lot from Social Democrats in Hamburg when we were for a short time in an opposition party that worked on having some sort of a consensus. And the outcome was that we agreed also with the later opposition of the Conservative Party that we have two branches, one with this gymnasium and the other one where you go one year longer, but you can also get the highest degree, which was not the case before and it was my point that this should happen so that everyone in Hamburg, if he's going to a regular school on a school where he could get the chance for going to university later if he or she wants.”

    2026-02-23 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 177. Olaf Scholz: Putin, Power, and Far-Right Populism · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  49. “And I grew up there. What I will never forget is that in the primary school I attended there were five classes with 35 people each class, more or less, and just seven of all of them, of all the five classes went to the higher education school, the gymnasium in Germany. And this was possibly the first idea about there should be more justity in society.”

    2026-02-23 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 177. Olaf Scholz: Putin, Power, and Far-Right Populism · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  50. “Was born in Osnabruck as my two brothers too, but we don't have any remembrance of this city because we left when I became three. And so I am as my parents from the city of Hamburg in their passports you find Altena, now Hamburg, because this is part of a process of putting some cities into the city-state of Hamburg in the 30s. I grew up not in Altena where they grew up, but in the east of the city of Hamburg, in one of the so-called suburbs. And we were very proud that we were able to buy a small house.”

    2026-02-23 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 177. Olaf Scholz: Putin, Power, and Far-Right Populism · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source