The chancellor had blocked billions worth of military aid to Ukraine, sparking a backlash from Annalena Baerbock
A photo purportedly showing German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock “turning her back” on Chancellor Olaf Scholz during a meeting has sparked a wave of memes online after the two officials clashed over military aid to Ukraine.
The news outlet Spiegel earlier reported that Scholz is currently blocking a €3 billion ($3.1 billion) emergency aid package to Kiev that Baerbock and Defense Minister Boris Pistorius had spent months putting together. The chancellor has reportedly argued the package is unnecessary, claiming that Kiev already has sufficient funds available from Berlin’s earlier contributions. Baerbock subsequently lashed out at Scholz, accusing him of disregarding his “responsibility for securing Europe’s peace.”
On Thursday, the Bild news outlet posted a picture of the foreign minister appearing to ignore the chancellor’s outstretched hand during a Federal Cabinet meeting. The article included a caption claiming that Baerbock had stormed out of a Cabinet meeting the previous day while Scholz supposedly tried to reach out to her to stop her but failed.
“The Chancellor’s arm no longer reaches that far,” Bild wrote, questioning whether the foreign minister left Scholz standing “on purpose.”
The photo quickly started making the rounds on social media, with a number of users claiming the body language in the picture said everything there needs to be said about the current state of German politics. Others couldn’t help but use the picture to produce memes.
Baerbock left the government meeting, refusing to be photographed, after Scholz’s decision to block a new €3 billion aid package for Ukraine.
— — GEROMAN — time will tell – 👀 — (@GeromanAT) January 18, 2025
In an interview with the news outlet ZDF on Friday, however, Baerbock disputed Bild’s claims, arguing that the picture and the interpretation posted by the newspaper were “symbolic of the times in which we live, that something is suggested through isolated shots that is not actually happening.”
“I didn’t see what was going on behind my back at all, I don’t have eyes in the back of my head,” the diplomat said.
Nevertheless, relations between Scholz and Baerbock are widely believed to be tense, particularly ahead of the upcoming snap elections slated for February, which were triggered by a vote of confidence that Scholz initiated back in December but lost.
Meanwhile, although future aid to Ukraine has become a point of contention among the ruling coalition parties, Germany remains one of the biggest military aid donors to Kiev, second only to the US, having allocated around €11 billion between January 2022 and October 2024 according to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy.
