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The CDU chairman Friedrich Merz sharply attacks Chancellor Olaf Scholz: “The Chancellor throws one smokescreen after the other”
Photo: FILIP SINGER / EPA
The CDU chairman Friedrich Merz is threatening not to approve the special fund of 100 billion euros for the Bundeswehr.
"I can only warn the federal government against repeating the procedure for the Bundeswehr, as with compulsory vaccination," said Merz of the "Bild am Sonntag".
“This time, too, we will not allow the federal government to put negotiated and ready-made results on the table, which we then simply have to agree to.
There is no free pass for the federal government here.
If the chancellor wants to persuade us to change the Basic Law and for 100 billion euros in new debt, then he has to talk to us.«
Merz set several conditions for his party's approval: "We demand that the 100 billion euros go exclusively to the upgrading of the Bundeswehr, and that at least two percent of gross domestic product be spent on defense on a permanent basis, as the Federal Chancellor stated in his government statement on April 11, 2020 February 27 said in the German Bundestag.
If these requirements are met and a repayment plan is presented for the new debts, then we can agree.«
An idea from the chancellery could cause new discrepancies in the “Bundeswehr special fund”: According to information from “Bild am Sonntag”, it is being considered there that parliament should approve the Bundeswehr special fund without an attached economic plan with a concrete list of the planned armaments purchases.
It is questionable whether the Union would support this, because it would severely limit its right to have a say in the individual armaments projects.
According to information from the "Bild am Sonntag" there is also criticism of such an approach from the ranks of the traffic light deputies.
At the same time, Merz sharply attacked Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) in the dispute over the delivery of heavy weapons to Ukraine: “The Chancellor throws one smokescreen after the other.
He covers it up, he doesn't say anything, he only tells half the truth," said the CDU leader in the "Bild am Sonntag".
»Criticism abroad is growing and Germany is increasingly isolated.
We Germans in particular have reason and reason enough to leave no doubt that we are ready to defend freedom in Europe to the best of our ability – and this is what this war is about.” Merz attested to a “rapid loss of confidence in Scholz in the national and international public«.
The Federal Chancellor is “not perceived as someone who leads powerfully and with strategic thinking.
He hesitates, he hesitates
Should Ukraine not receive sufficient military support, Merz warned: “If we don't face Putin boldly and energetically now, there is a risk that his war of aggression will expand beyond Ukraine.
It is precisely the refusal to use heavy weapons that makes the escalation and expansion of this war more and more likely.
The last few years have shown that Putin will always keep going if he is not stopped.«
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