Former SPD MP Fritz Felgentreu compares the Chancellor to a tragic figure from Greek mythology.
“He reminds me of Oedipus” Felgentreu told the Spiegel. “Because it’s the story of an actually good monarch, a good politician, who rules in the interest of his people, and yet everything goes wrong.” Initially, Oedipus doesn’t understand what’s going on. Then it becomes clear, “that many of his own past mistakes are the origin of what’s causing trouble for him and the people he rules” said Felgentreu.
In Sophocles’ tragedy “King Oedipus” the title figure unknowingly kills his own father and marries his own mother. When asked what mistake he saw in Scholz, the former MP said, “I wouldn’t single out a specific, concrete mistake. I mean rather a series of oversights that have been affecting a whole generation of politicians over the past 30 years and are now catching up with us.” He listed the neglect of infrastructure and “misestimations in security and defense policy” as examples.
The classical philologist Felgentreu sat in the Bundestag for the SPD from 2013 to 2021 and returned to the Evangelical Gymnasium at the Grey Cloister in Berlin after his departure. The former defense policy spokesperson of the SPD parliamentary group is also a member of the Senior Advisory Board for the strategy consulting firm Concilius and advises on security and defense policy issues.
Felgentreu also drew parallels from ancient history even at the end of the traffic light coalition. “Ancient history provides almost always more or less fitting parallels” he said. “The Second Triumvirate, for example, a union between Octavian, Marcus Antonius, and Lepidus, also collapsed because one of the triumvirs was dissatisfied with his success and was pushed aside due to excessive demands.” When reminded of this sounding like Christian Lindner, Felgentreu said, “Back then it was Lepidus. He could at least spend his old age in a luxurious villa in southern Italy. There’s worse to come.