The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

“What a crazy sentence”: the reporter's Belarus statement appalled Lanz

2021-11-19T09:11:20.354Z


Poland, Belarus and the EU. With “Markus Lanz”, FDP man Lambsdorff gives his best assessment of the conflict and a journalist tells what she experienced in the region.


Poland, Belarus and the EU.

With “Markus Lanz”, FDP man Lambsdorff gives his best assessment of the conflict and a journalist tells what she experienced in the region.

“Markus Lanz” tries to focus on the Polish-Belarusian border on Tuesday evening. To this end, he invited the journalist Muriel Kalisch, who did the research on site. It should be noted that what she experienced did not leave her without a trace: “Today, of course, it is particularly dramatic. Today we saw pictures of refugees throwing stones and tree trunks at the Kusnica border crossing. On the other hand, we see Polish soldiers using water cannons, some of whom also report tear gas. "

Talk host Markus Lanz asks: “How do we have to imagine that, Ms. Kalisch? They were there. Thousands of people wander through the forest, on country roads, through swamps, with small children. Some of them are just young men. They just wander through the forest and, if they try to go forward, are pushed back by Polish border guards and if they try to return to Belarus, they are pushed back to the Polish border. Is that the situation? ”“ Exactly, ”says Kalisch, explaining that the Polish and Belarusian soldiers had worked together until last year. But since May 2020 the Belarusian dictator Lukashenko has been sending people to Europe in a targeted manner.

Border conflict in Poland - Lambsdorff at "Markus Lanz": "Their fear is of course that this is the beginning of a major operation"

FDP politician Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, who is the next German foreign minister under discussion, listens attentively to the reports of the journalist before host Lanz speaks to him that he himself had recently been to Warsaw for talks. “Poland is the victim of aggression here,” says Lambsdorff and looks at the situation: “That is about 15 to 20,000 people who are now in Minsk and there on the border. So a number, and that's very, very important to me, that is in no way compared to 2015. In two ways: the numbers are much lower. In 2015 we had 800,000 to a million, so a completely different dimension. In 2015 we also had an original, i.e. a really genuine refugee situation. The people fled the war and horror in Syria.We have a crisis here produced by Lukashenko. "

Lambsdorff explains why he visited the Polish government: “First of all, the Poles have the right to protect their borders from such an attack. That's why I think it's wrong if you go and explain to the Poles what exactly they have to do. That's why I went to Warsaw to talk to the government. To listen - how do they actually see it? ”“ And what is their fear? ”Asks host Lanz. Lambsdorff: “Their fear is of course that this is the beginning of a major operation. That it will be a new route, so to speak, that leads through Poland, as it is now in Italy, Spain, Malta, Greece. And this fear is so great that there is a harshness there that, and I made this clear in the conversations, led to a wrong decision.And in my opinion, this wrong decision is to completely seal off this border strip for aid organizations, for Frontex, for the United Nations, for journalists. "

Polish-Belarusian border - Lambsdorff at "Markus Lanz": "I was told in Warsaw that they suspect Putin was behind the whole operation"

Lambsdorff broadens the view: “Two other countries that are just as victims of this aggression, namely Latvia and Lithuania, do not do this lack of transparency. There, as a journalist, as an NGO, as an aid organization, you can go forward and see what is happening. ”Poland and the Baltic states are now afraid of Russian influences in their countries, explains Lambsdorff:“ They believe that Lukashenko will do nothing without Putin's permission. Or even: Without Putin's express request. I was told in Warsaw that Putin is suspected to be behind the whole operation. However, I haven't seen any evidence of this, so I wouldn't say so. But one thing is clear: The support from Moscow for Lukashenko - that is clearly given. "

“We even saw a military exercise, right in the corner where it happened, in Grodno, where Russian airborne troops, i.e. paratroopers, were dropped off.

Where then of course all alarm bells go off in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania and Warsaw.

Because that is the westernmost point of the whole of Belarus, where Russian soldiers suddenly arrive ”, describes Lambsdorff further and shows understanding for the Baltic states:“ This is of course a reason for Polish, Lithuanian and Latvian politics to be extremely nervous. ” The countries fear that they will face the same fate as Ukraine.

"Markus Lanz" - these were his guests on November 16th:

  • Alexander Graf Lambsdorff

    (FDP) - politician

  • Christina Berndt

    - journalist

  • Thomas Mertens

    - epidemiologist

  • Muriel Kalisch

    - journalist

Kalisch contradicts the view that Poland cannot be held accountable in its actions: “One thing that Poland could very well say would be that it is currently breaking EU law by legalizing these pushbacks and carrying them out every day.

We in Europe are actually quite often quick to say Poland when it is breaking EU law.

The EU is still relatively cautious on this point. "The journalist's sobering description of the situation:" We have several thousand people on the border with Poland who are starving and freezing to death in these forests. "

In the video: Women and children spend the night in the logistics center

The following statement caught even the experienced moderator Lanz ice cold. The young journalist first describes graphically how people are pushed back and forth on the Belarusian-Polish border. Then a sentence comes out that clarifies the whole drama that is currently going on in the border area. A border guard told her: "These people are like stones, the Belarusians throw them over to us and we throw them back." Lanz reacts with shock. “What a crazy sentence,” said the talk show host.

Kalisch makes the difference between the Polish and Belarusian military clear: “The refugees told us that the Polish soldiers are actually quite friendly.

They often give them something to drink or eat, but they send them back.

The Belarusian soldiers are brutal.

They beat people, they rob them.

Watches, the last money.

The only way to get left behind is to smear people with hundreds of dollars.

What I think struck me the most was when someone said that dogs were set on their daughter. "

FDP foreign minister candidate Lambsdorff returns to "Markus Lanz" in front of his own door: "Germany has blocked everything"

Host Lanz is upset about Poland's stance and asks: “Are we such a divided bunch that we are not even able to say to the Poles: 'Please leave the refugee agency of the United Nations or NGOs, doctors, journalists - you leave those in there! '”Lambsdorff's realpolitical assessment:“ I would rather sit here and say now that we have a common asylum policy and that Poland is not behaving correctly within the framework of this policy and we could address that in Brussels. Why don't we have this policy? Also because Germany has hindered them massively. Germany has until 2015, when the refugees arrived en masse, Germany has the Interior Minister de Maizière, Hans-Peter Friedrich, Otto Schily, as they are all called, Horst Seehofer - everything is blocked in Brussels,which went in the direction of a common European asylum policy. "

"Markus Lanz" - the conclusion of the show

On Tuesday evening, the “Markus Lanz” group, together with the politician Alexander Graf Lambsdorff (FDP) and the journalist Muriel Kalisch, looked at the EU's external border in Poland.

The descriptions by Lambsdorff and Kalisch make it clear: The situation is extremely tense, the situation for the migrants is hopeless.

Lambsdorff's wish for the future: That the traffic light coalition reform the Dublin Agreement.

(Hermann Racke)

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2021-11-19

You may like

Trends 24h

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.