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SPD politician Rolf Mützenich
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IMAGO/Christian Spicker
Rolf Mützenich defended Chancellor Olaf Scholz's Ukraine policy against criticism from the ranks of the traffic light coalition and his own party.
In a letter dated Wednesday to the SPD members of parliament, the parliamentary group leader wrote that he felt "individual comments and appearances from the coalition parties" in the debate on arms deliveries as "bitter".
The letter is available to SPIEGEL.
Mützenich called on his own faction to unite.
"We must not allow ourselves to be impressed by voices that want to make us and the public believe that Germany is not fulfilling its responsibilities," he wrote.
"The opposite is the case.
The federal government is acting decisively, prudently and carefully.”
In "accordance with the charter of the United Nations," the federal government delivered weapons for self-defense to Kyiv and agreed to the delivery from third countries.
These included armored vehicles, infantry fighting vehicles and howitzers.
Equally important are anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles, as well as machine guns, night vision devices and ammunition.
From the beginning of the war of aggression, Germany was one of about two dozen countries that closely coordinate such deliveries, including the USA and France.
"Our decisions as to which weapons can and should be delivered are based on the principles of whether they are used directly for self-defense by the Ukrainian armed forces and whether the tasks of the Bundeswehr can continue to be fulfilled at the same time," Mützenich continued.
Mützenich also acknowledged party-political motives for the critics.
"The fact that some critics of German government policy sometimes suppress all these facts and sometimes deliberately misrepresent them shows that they are obviously concerned with more than critical monitoring of German security policy," he wrote.
"Much of this gives the impression that the criticism is only marginally motivated by concerns about Ukraine."
Mützenich announced that Chancellor Scholz and the SPD party leaders wanted to discuss Ukraine policy with MPs at the parliamentary group meeting next week.
"Until then, I thank you for your solidarity and ask you to continue to stand together," he wrote to the MPs.
»This is – especially in times of war – a clear sign of our political responsibility.«
as /AFP