A group of eminent German historians have written an open letter criticizing the party's refusal to distance itself from Vladimir Putin. In Germany, these internal ruptures are very rare.
The last one took place in 1959 when the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) broke with Marxism. The SPD could be about to undergo another such change, but this time the resistance forces are more formidable, writes Jürgen Schmitz, a German political analyst. He says a part of Chancellor Scholz's SPD lives in the grip of an old nostalgia for the German-Russian relationship that prevents it from being firmer in its support for Ukraine against Putin. The party's leader in the Bundestag, Rolf Mützenich, has offered to mediate in the war between Russia and Ukraine, says Schmitzer, but his call to freeze the conflict is cynical. He tries to exploit deep German anxiety regarding Russia, he says. The letter criticizes the position of the SPD leadership on three specific issues, including the delivery of weapons to Ukraine and the SPD's own communication regarding the issue.