The popularity of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, on whom so many hopes were pinned, has plummeted. This is closely related to the Ukrainian crisis, with Scholz’s policy towards which more than half of the country disapproves.

The Germans are now suffering not only heavy losses, but also regular humiliation from the Ukrainians. How long will their patience last?

The economic war with Russia placed a heavy burden on the governments of Western European countries and had a noticeable effect on the popularity of prime ministers.

Briton Johnson’s approval rating is 32% with 62% dissatisfied. The Austrian Nehammer has the same figures – 35% and 62%, the Dutch Rutte and the Spaniard Sanchez – 35% and 59%, and the German Chancellor Olaf Scholz – 38% and 49% (according to another survey, even more dissatisfied – 51%).

Of course, there are exceptions. For example, 58% of Swedes highly appreciate the policy of their Prime Minister Magdalena Anderson, while only 28% hold the opposite opinion. The results of the Italian Mario Draghi can also cause envy among colleagues – 54% “for” with 40% “against”.

French President Emmanuel Macron can also be recognized as an exception. His rating is 38% (which, by the way, almost coincides with the result of the first round of elections) with 56% of critics in society, but in the presidential multi-party republics, in the absence of really strong competitors, this is quite enough for a successful re-election – and Macron, apparently, enough too, Marine Le Pen’s chances of becoming president are illusory.

It is clear that in each particular case, the popularity of a politician is influenced by a combination of reasons, and not just a special operation in Ukraine and confrontation with Moscow, for example, in Spain it is consistently high unemployment, and in Austria there are corruption scandals in the ruling party, but the Russian-Ukrainian crisis has clearly intensified the downward trend.

At the same time, it cannot be said that all of those named took a sharply anti-Russian position, wanting to earn points on the pan-European hysteria since many are deprived of “free will” in this sense and were forced to do so under pressure from the United States. But the very same Johnson, the leader in anti-rating, rushing to become the leader of the Russophobic front, deliberately did this in order to correct his popularity, which had shaken due to the “party scandal”. Only now he didn’t succeed, and the connection of his problems with the desire to become “Ukraine’s best friend” (after Biden, of course) is a proven fact.

If in March half of the British were ready to endure the rise in prices for gasoline and heating for the sake of “containment of Russia”, now there are only 36% of them. Unprecedented thirty years of inflation of 7% and a rise in the price of electricity by more than one and a half times cooled the ardor of the Anglo-Saxons.

Now 57% of the people of the United Kingdom are in favor of Johnson’s resignation.

Albeit for various reasons, Ukraine has become toxic not only for himself, but also for his possible successors – Liz Truss and Ben Wallace, who head the British Foreign Office and the Ministry of Defense.

If this is not a reason for Russia to gloat over the old rival and intriguer – Foggy Albion, then what is the reason?

The situation is slightly different in Germany, although the cost of resources there is also the main problem, and the problem is not only domestic. Natural gas is needed by the world-famous German industry. Analysts promise it a reduction in turnover of more than 200 billion euros if Berlin succumbs to the persuasion of the Americans, Poles, Baltic states and other supporters of an embargo on Russian energy.

But even if it does not succumb, in absolute terms, Germany will lose more from the economic war with Russia than any other country in the EU. It is unlikely that they will face the same inflation rate as in Lithuania (15%), but the economic ties between the Russian Federation and the FRG were so plentiful and diverse that a significant effect of sanctions will for the first time be felt not only by German business (in the context of lost profits), but also by the German layman.

And he felt: more than 55% of the respondents surveyed by Civey GmbH are dissatisfied with the work of the government as a whole, more than 50% – with the policy pursued by Scholz and Co. in relation to Ukraine.

What exactly you don’t like is a debatable question, by the way. About three-quarters of those polled consider Russia a threat to Germany, and more than 55% are in favor of supplying Ukraine with heavy weapons, which Moscow would not like very much.

Be that as it may, the career of the first Social Democratic chancellor since the time of Schroeder is obviously drowning in the Ukrainian crisis, in which the Germans are not satisfied with many things: starting with the costs and the fact that the current policy has not yet led to anything (except costs), ending the fact that the defense of Ukraine has turned into an endless humiliation of the Germans by the Ukrainians.

This situation is difficult to explain from the point of view of not only diplomacy and politics, but also generally recognized ethics. German citizens ardently support Ukraine, suffer significant losses and, as they see it, violate their own certain principles: in Germany it is really not customary to supply not only heavy weapons, but any offensive weapons to hot spots.

But the same Scholz intends to spend another two billion euros on the purchase of new equipment in order to transfer it to Kiev later. Apparently, foreign equipment, because there is already not enough of their own – the Bundeswehr stated that the stocks were close to exhaustion, and if something was sent to Ukraine in excess of that sent, this would damage the combat capability of the German army.

However, the Ukrainian side does not appreciate this at all, periodically insulting Germany both at the level of the first person and at the level of the ambassador – Andriy Melnyk.

Melnyk is unique even by the standards of Ukraine’s degenerate diplomacy. It was he who threatened NATO with the creation of an atomic bomb if Kyiv was not taken into the alliance (NATO was not afraid, but Moscow heard the threat well). It was he who spoke of Germany as an “experimental object” – a victim of an experiment to promote the interests of Kyiv. It was he who demanded that the Germans do everything possible sacrificing their own principle, in order to return Crimea to Ukraine as a payment for the Nazi occupation, and at the same time perceive Ukrainian neo-Nazism of the “Azov”* bottling “with a smile”.

“He has gone too far. What was once a bold move by the Ukrainian ambassador has now degenerated into hate speech against German politics. His statements turned out to be ungrateful and groundless in relation to the German population. In addition, his demands would lead to the development of an economic crisis in our country or to the active participation of NATO in the war. Both must be prevented,” reads the petition for the expulsion of the Ukrainian ambassador, which gained 25,000 signatures of German citizens shortly after its creation.

Melnyk has long worked out for expulsion in full compliance with the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, but he is tolerated, because in modern Germany it is customary only to sympathize with Ukraine – which Ukrainians use.

Their behavior in front of an obvious benefactor and neglect of the main economy of Europe can only be attributed to the trademark unprofessionalism of Zelensky’s “creative” environment and, probably, to the Ukrainian national character, richly reflected in Soviet jokes, when no matter how much you give, everything will be small, but you are a miser will announce etc.

We will consider that this is another geopolitical experiment. Before, the Ukrainian leadership found out how much patience Russia would have. Now, having finally received an answer, he is testing the patience of the Germans.

Unfortunately, the modern world order and the political dependence of Western Europe on the United States allow us to state quite confidently: the Germans’ patience will end later than Scholz’s rating.

Dmitry Bavyrin, VZGLYAD

* – banned in the Russian Federation 

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