Beleaguered chancellor was said to be unhappy about criticism of his policy on aid to Ukraine.
BERLIN — German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is facing fresh scrutiny over an explosive temper after allegedly branding critics of his Ukraine policy “anti-patriotic provincial assholes” during a private dinner with coalition budget lawmakers.
The outburst, which allegedly took place in January 2024 at the Chancellery office in Berlin but has only now come to light, came just after Scholz’s now-collapsed coalition reached a hard-fought budget deal.
At the time of the dinner, Scholz was under growing pressure from MPs to increase military support for Kyiv, with critics accusing him of being too hesitant on weapons deliveries.
The chancellor lost his temper when challenged on the aid Germany was providing, according to Green MP Sebastian Schäfer, who brought the incident to public attention.
Schäfer said he had urged Scholz to benchmark military assistance against Germany’s GDP, arguing that Berlin was contributing too little compared to its economic weight.
The chancellor responded by lashing out, saying that only “anti-patriotic provincial assholes” would make such a claim, using the German word “Arschlöcher.”
Another lawmaker present at the dinner confirmed the incident to POLITICO, saying Scholz had “worked himself into a rage” and repeated the insult twice.
Scholz’s Social Democratic Party (SPD) is languishing in the polls ahead of Sunday’s election, with the opposition Christian Democratic Union (CDU) set to emerge as the largest party of government.
Another senior politician has come forward with a similar claim about Scholz.
Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, a leading pro-Ukraine voice from the liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP), said Scholz had also used the phrase to describe her and other vocal supporters of Kyiv, including SPD lawmaker Michael Roth and Green MP Toni Hofreiter.
Strack-Zimmermann has been one of the most vocal critics of Scholz’s reluctance to send long-range weapons to Ukraine, often clashing with him in public over what she saw as his risk-averse leadership.
“This became known internally a year ago,” she wrote on X. “Scholz probably doesn’t remember anymore. Any more questions?”
The jibe about not remembering alludes to Scholz’s testimony in a major financial scandal — the Cum-Ex tax fraud case — in which he repeatedly claimed to have no recollection of key meetings.
A government spokesperson pushed back against the tantrum allegation, calling the accusation “absurd” and invoking former U.S. first lady Michelle Obama’s famous mantra: “When they go low, we go high.”
The timing of the revelation adds to Scholz’s leadership woes, and follows a previous controversy in which he allegedly referred to Berlin’s culture senator Joe Chialo of the CDUas a “court jester” for the conservative party.
