SPD to blame for Germany's dependence on Putin?

Lanz brings Minister Schulze to 180: "Outrageous!"

Created: 03/18/2022, 10:11 am

The guests at "Markus Lanz" on March 17th.

© ZDF Mediathek (Screenshot)

On the 22nd day of the Ukraine war, “Markus Lanz” looks at Zelenskyj's speech in the Bundestag.

Minister Schulze is upset by a thesis on the SPD.

Hamburg – With “Markus Lanz”*, things get emotional right from the start on Thursday evening.

The occasion is the Bundestag debate in the morning, in which the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj spoke.

"It could have been a great moment," said talk show host Markus Lanz, annoyed at the course of the session, in which neither parliament nor Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) answered Selenskyj, but instead went on with the agenda.

Development Minister Svenja Schulze (SPD) emphasized that it was an emotional speech for her because she had seen the images of women and children on the border with Ukraine.

It is all the more important that Germany act and support Ukraine.

Instead of expressing understanding for the concern of the moderator, Schulze praises the traffic light coalition *.

She is happy "that Germany is helping so much, that we are doing so much that we have initiated a turning point with Olaf Scholz."

SPD Minister Schulze on "Markus Lanz": "Olaf Scholz is doing everything he can to get Putin back to the negotiating table"

Selenskyj addressed the Federal Chancellor directly, explains talkmaster Lanz and wants to know from Schulze why he did not answer.

Schulze replies that what is on the agenda is a decision of parliament and not of the federal government.

"Olaf Scholz is constantly in contact with Selenskyj," she also tries to appease the angry moderator.

The chancellor is doing "everything he can to get Putin back to the negotiating table."

Schulze's seemingly mechanical answers bring host Lanz up to operating temperature.

It was an unprecedented process, the world public looked at the German Parliament on Thursday, “and then you simply debate the vaccination requirement as if nothing had happened.

Serious?

Do you like that?”

The minister does not answer Lanz directly, but says she thinks it's good that the German Bundestag can listen.

The decisive question is whether and how action is taken afterwards.

Volodymyr Selenskyj in the German Bundestag - CDU Mrs. Güler describes the reaction of the parliament to "Markus Lanz" as "undignified and shameful"

Whether or not a debate takes place directly after Zelenskyj's speech is not important, "those are all gimmicks," says Schulze.

It is more important that fleeing women and children are helped.

Lanz asks opposition politician Serap Güler (CDU) whether she also thinks such a discussion is a gimmick, after all she was there too.

Güler accuses Schulze of a diversionary maneuver.

She is certain that if the Chancellor had asked for the floor spontaneously, "no parliamentarian would have stood up and said: You are not allowed to speak here."

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Nobody knew that Selenskyj would address the chancellor personally, says Güler, adding, "In this respect, it's an opportunity that he missed."

She feels the course of the Bundestag session as "undignified and shameful".

The criticism is justified, says the sociologist and migration expert Gerald Knaus, in the British House of Commons and in the American Congress the video broadcasts with Zelenskyj were great moments.

However, he harbors the hope that the federal government will "do the right thing in the end, as it has always done in the last few weeks."

"Markus Lanz" - these were his guests on March 17:

• Svenja Schulze (SPD)

  – politician

• Serap Güler (CDU)

  – politician

• Vincent Stamer

  - Economist

• Gerald Knaus

  - Sociologist

• Ulf Röller

  – journalist

Because Svenja Schulze is an SPD minister, she too has to put up with questions about Germany's former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder (SPD), who led the Federal Republic to become energy dependent on Russia.

Schulze says it is not an SPD-specific problem, other parties have also ruled in Germany.

Talkmaster Lanz sees it differently because Schröder came up with the “payroll of Vladimir Putin” less than two weeks after leaving the office of Chancellor.

Schulze replies that she finds it "deadly sad and shameful" how the former chancellor is acting, but he has "no role in the SPD, he has no influence whatsoever.

He is a private citizen.

I think it's a shame and it hurts me what he's doing.

But it has nothing to do with the SPD's current policy."

When Lanz continues to drill into the SPD*'s Russia problem and lists a number of officials who held important positions in energy companies after or during their political career, Schulze bursts out: "That's outrageous.

I also reject that in no uncertain terms!” Germany has made itself dependent on fossil fuels for many decades, and to reduce this to the SPD alone does not go far enough.

“It is true that mistakes have been made over the past 16 years, even under a Merkel government, when it comes to Russia and Putin.

You have to openly admit that,” admits Güler.

Praise for Foreign Minister Baerbock (Greens) from the opposition: "She's doing a damn good job"

When Schulze says that Russia is not dependent on Germany as a raw material customer, economist Vincent Stamer disagrees.

Coal and oil are sold with the help of ships, that would work. But when it comes to gas, Russia is also dependent on the pipeline infrastructure - which is why Russia would very well notice in the medium term if less gas would flow into the EU.

Both Schulze and Knaus reject the fact that the crisis triggered by the Ukraine war on the global wheat market is increasing the pressure to migrate.

Assad, Maduro, Putin – Knaus believes that the largest migration movements occur where there is war and persecution.

Because, as moderator Lanz summarizes: "Someone who is so poor that he has to starve cannot afford to flee."

Güler believes that only China could possibly end the Ukraine war.

"The European as well as the American diplomatic efforts have not borne fruit," she says.

Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock is obviously trying and is doing a "damn good job", but the hour of diplomacy is over.

It is possible that China still has influence on Russia, to which Putin is already turning economically.

The journalist Ulf Röller, who was connected from Beijing, does not comment on this, but says that the conflict in China is being followed with great interest, because it can be seen "that you think twice about how far you go into such military adventures". .

"Markus Lanz" - The conclusion of the show

Schulze leaves a mixed impression on "Markus Lanz" on Thursday evening.

While Lanz tries to get answers for the behavior of Parliament, Schulze answers in phrases – which numerous ZDF viewers also complain about on social media, especially Twitter.

Her party colleague Michael Roth (SPD) had already shown on Twitter in the afternoon that things could be done differently.

Güler comments on the government's actions from the opposition's point of view;

economist Vincent Stamer discusses the economic damage a Russian freeze on raw materials could have;

and the sociologist Gerald Knaus and the journalist Ulf Röller provide their perspective on the war in Ukraine and the Russian president's striving for power.