Merzsplaining: the chancellor’s overconfidence is unpopular in Germany. But could it be what Europe needs? | Joseph de Weck

Unlike his predecessors, Friedrich Merz projects certainty, even when he’s wrong. Now he must turn words into a deliverable plan The 18th-century philosopher Johann Gottfried Herder is credited in Germany with coining the maxim: “Talk is silver, but silence is golden.” The saying has come to define Germany’s political culture. Olaf Scholz was economical with words and drew mockery for his wooden, monosyllabic replies as the “Scholzomat” or even the “coma chancellor”. Scholz was not entirely d...

By Joseph de Weck