Chancellor Olaf Scholz's foreign policy image in the Gazeta Wyborcza newspaper in the context of Russia's full-scale war in Ukraine (2022–2023)

In: Wschód Europy: studia humanistyczno-społeczne = Vostok Evropy : gumanitarno-obščestvennye issledovanija = East of Europe : humanities and social studies, Band 9, Heft 2, S. 67-88

Abstract

The aim of this article is to reconstruct the foreign policy press image of Chancellor Olaf Scholz in the period from 8.12.2021, i.e. from the day the politician was confirmed by the Bundestag as German Chancellor and on the eve of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine (24.02.2022), to the end of the conference on the future of Ukraine taking place in Saudi Arabia in Jeddah (6.08.2023). The research used a content analysis method, supplemented by elements of text hermeneutics. The image of Scholz in the Gazeta Wyborcza newspaper in the area of his foreign policy in the context of the Russian Federation's war in Ukraine reflects conservative and prestige politics (according to Hans Morgenthau's typology). The media portrayal of German-Ukrainian relations furthermore highlights the German Chancellor's attitude of post-classical realism in Robert Gilpin's terms. In the journal analysed, the image of the head of the German government is that of a politician intent on maintaining businesslike relations with Russia and taking up a new business-as-usual policy with the Russian Federation. Scholz represents so-called Realpolitik and consequently does not realistically (apart from the declarative layer) support Ukraine's political aspirations related to its membership of NATO and the European Union. The article increases the cognitive value in the area of research on the media image of European political leaders in the context of the Russian Federation's war in Ukraine.