Visiting Washington is a “True Shoals”
Yet Finance Minister Olaf Scholes traveled to Washington. He is officially attending the IMF autumn meeting there, but he appears here as the future president. Will the meeting take place at the White House? Not very possible.
EIn a day and a half, Olaf Scholes will now be back in Berlin – at least physically. On Wednesday night, a potential future president arrived in Washington. In his office as finance minister, Scholes wants to attend the annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). He is expected to return to Berlin on Thursday. Studies on the Traffic Light Alliance will continue on Friday.
Scholes has been to Washington several times, most recently in July. But this visit takes place in different circumstances than the trip three months ago. Of course, Scholes has long ceased to be considered the “mere” finance minister among his colleagues in Washington. Behind him is an election victory of 25.7 percent, and he will be considered the future German president.
What a difference for July. When Scholes was in Washington at the time, he was described as having no chances like the poor man at home. Infrared Dimab rated SPD at 15 percent.
Sholes continues to rule “seriously”
The formation or absence of a government – the decision to attend the IMF conference is a “real shoals” – is common to his understanding of politics. Through the journey, Scholes wants to make it clear: he continues to rule, continues his ministerial duties, “serious”, as he wants to say. The change from Germany is coming from the stage Bundestack election Not the leader, on the contrary.
Presumably, the finance minister wants to reiterate his meeting with his colleagues and central bank governors on his role in shaping the global minimum tax. 132 states have recently agreed to a minimum corporate tax rate of 15 percent from 2023. Scholes campaigned for this for a long time.
When former US President Donald Trump opposed it, Joe Biden sided with Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen Sholes. Now Sholes and Yellen have a chance to meet again. More topics at IMF: Govt, Climate, Distribution Chains.
The White House appointment is uncertain
It is unlikely that President Biden will get a potential future president in public. So far, Biden has commented very little about the outcome of the federal election – even on election Sunday, the results were only available in predictable form, and he called them by a reporter.
Biden, like everyone else in Washington, is familiar with the German system of government. He can count on Sholes as principal. But he should be aware that exploratory speech does not guarantee certainty. Biden’s appointment with Scholes is now understood to be interfering in the formation of a German government. Neither side was interested in it.
And Kamala Harris? During the summer visit, Scholes hoped to meet with the vice president. Everything was prepared. The Vice President welcomes the Vice President – it will surely delight the SPD presidential candidate in the hot phase of the election campaign. But Harris canceled the meeting. Will this meeting happen automatically now? Neither the US nor the German side announced such a thing. Will it come? Impossible.
Sholes is accompanied by Jacob von Weisser, head of policy at the Federal Ministry of Finance in Washington. Under Scholes he could head the Chancellor’s Department of Economics and Finance. Scholes’ close adviser, Secretary of State Wolfgang Schmidt, is in Berlin, meanwhile. There is a lot to integrate there.
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