Olaf Scholz was exasperated. At a meeting of EU leaders this week to brainstorm ways to maintain support for Ukraine when Donald Trump returns as US president, the German chancellor became irate that an idea he has regularly shot down was being touted again.
At the discussions at the home of Nato secretary-general Mark Rutte in Brussels on Wednesday night, Polish President Andrzej Duda called for the EU to confiscate and spend the €260bn worth of Russian sovereign assets immobilised at European financial institutions — an idea promoted by the US and UK but resisted by Germany, France and Italy.
“You don’t understand how this would affect the stability of our financial markets,” Scholz barked across the table at Duda, startling other leaders present, according to three people briefed on the discussions. “You don’t even use the euro!”