Olaf Scholz Is Not Your Friend

This nominally center-left government — a coalition with the Greens — is known for introducing the Agenda 2010 reforms to Germany’s labor and welfare laws. These brought the biggest cut to social security benefits in postwar Germany, with welfare measures controversially replaced with a punitive sanctions-based system known as Hartz IV.

As Schröder’s enforcer, Scholz staunchly defended this agenda — insisting that “even badly paid and uncomfortable work is better than state financed not-working.”

Scholz also argued for removing any mention of “democratic socialism” from the party program, similar to Tony Blair’s abandonment of the British Labour Party’s traditional Clause IV advocating common ownership.

He insisted that “in the twenty-first century we have to change perspective.” Hammering home his neoliberal hawkishness, he later blamed the effects of increasing poverty and social inequality on “incomplete reforms.”