Big agenda for Europe’s two most powerful politicians

GERMAN Chancellor Olaf Scholz and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer are sometimes criticised as technocratic, uncharismatic politicians of the centre-left. Yet, even some of their fiercest opponents acknowledge that they are perhaps the most powerful national leaders in Europe at the moment.

Scholz heads the European Union’s largest economy, and it remains possible he could win a second term in 2025. Meanwhile, Starmer will likely be UK prime minister till at least 2028 or 2029, after Labour’s landslide election victory in July.

This is why the first major meeting of Starmer and Scholz on Wednesday (Aug 28) matters. Europe is facing a critical period, ranging from the future of the Ukraine war to the next steps regarding the transatlantic alliance with the United States, and also the future of ties with China. With the term-limited Emmanuel Macron’s presidential power draining away in France, it will be Scholz and Starmer who will have an outsized influence in shaping issues facing the region in the coming months from their vantage points within and outside the EU, respectively.