Wagenknecht accuses Ukraine of war crimes in Donbass.

Marieluise Beck (Greens) reacts violently

Created: 05/04/2022, 17:08

Marieluise Beck (Greens) and Sahra Wagenknecht (Left) as guests at “Maischberger.

The Week” (ARD).

© WDR/Oliver Ziebe

Germany is divided on the question of more arms deliveries to Ukraine.

Maischberger lets the Greens and the Left exchange the basic positions of the two camps.

Berlin – "I think terrible war crimes are taking place in this war, probably on both sides," says Sahra Wagenknecht.

The avowed communist and left-wing MP is one of the politicians who has defended Vladimir Putin the longest.

On the eve of the Russian invasion, they vehemently denied this possibility.

Maischberger invited Wagenknecht as a counterpart to Green politician Marieluise Beck.

This was recently in Kyiv for talks as part of the Ukraine crisis and is vehemently committed to military support for the partially occupied country.

Presenter Sandra Maischberger, who with her talk in the first "Maischberger.

Die Woche” from this show onwards appears once instead of twice a week and now again with an audience after the pandemic break, asks Wagenknecht strictly: “Where are Ukrainian soldiers going against Russian women and children?!” Wagenknecht answers very broadly composed: "Well, in the Donbass," says the politician and then moves dangerously close and again to the Kremlin's argument.

Shortly before the Russian invasion on February 24 of this year, Wagenknecht announced in the "Anne Will" talk with conviction that Russia had no real interest in invading Ukraine, instead demanding the withdrawal of western missile bases from the Baltic States.

Maischberger now wants to know what it's like to be so "fundamentally" wrong.

Wagenknecht initially seems reasonable, but her justification then sounds like an accusation: "I've learned that Putin is someone who tends to make dangerous short-circuits when he feels cornered."

"Maischberger.

The week" - these guests discussed with:

• Marieluise Beck (B'90/Greens) -

   Board member at the Zentrum Liberale Moderne, former member of the Bundestag

• Sahra Wagenknecht (left) -

  member of the Bundestag

• Frank Elstner -

  TV presenter and producer

As experts: 

• Melanie Amann -

  head of the

  Spiegel

  capital city office

• Mariam Lau -

  publicist and political correspondent of the 

  time

• Waldemar Hartmann -

   former ARD sports presenter

Wagenknecht calls for diplomacy across Ukraine to resolve the conflict

The Left Politician

calls for a dialogue with Putin.

Instead of using heavy weapons, the war should be ended with diplomacy - even over the head of Ukraine.

According to Wagenknecht, talks with Germany and France on one side and Russia on the other side of the negotiating table would bring peace back to Europe.

When Beck is surprised by Wagenknecht's position of leaving Ukraine out of the talks about his own country, Wagenknecht counters with Putin's deadly argument: "We can't allow ourselves to be drawn into a nuclear war." Ukraine's neutrality is the remedy, Wagenknecht is certain.

When Beck, already visibly annoyed by her seat neighbor, objects that the Ukrainian President Selenskyj had already offered the Russian President neutrality, Wagenknecht does not want to accept that either: "That wasn't meant seriously," she claims and that is now also on urging by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and US President Joe Biden.

According to Wagenknecht without proof, Germany too allowed itself to be drawn into the American strategy.

Beck is applauded for her reference to history: regimes must be defeated

For Beck, Wagenknecht's statements turn the international legal system upside down, she tries again with the story and gets applause from the audience: "One must have learned that," the Green politician begins, "that there are regimes who are so evil and so aggressive that they must be defeated with weapons".

Wagenknecht comes with the Nazi club: The "Hitler comparison" is completely inappropriate, the left is outraged.

Beck is undeterred and refers to the city of Kharkiv, which is currently under constant fire: "If there is a possibility of rendering this artillery and these rockets harmless, civilians will be protected."

Wagenknecht sees it the other way around: "If Ukraine has more weapons, the Russians will also use more weapons." create a situation from which there is no longer a face-saving way out.” Beck sees this as a “fear mongering” by the Kremlin.

In her view, the danger lies elsewhere: "If Putin succeeds in defeating Ukraine, he will go further."

Scholz and Schröder get their fat off in the panel of experts

A nuclear war is also being debated in the panel of experts - but in relation to Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

In the Spiegel interview, he spoke out against heavy weapons with the sentence: “I will do everything to prevent an escalation that leads to a third world war.

There must be no nuclear war."

This point of view is now obsolete.

Journalist Amman, who conducted the interview with Scholz, explains to Maischberger: Scholz read the interview, "he left the word 'nuclear war'," said Amman.

She is certain: "He certainly did it consciously." It was Scholz's "message" to justify his initial "reluctance".

How much pacifist there is in Scholz, the "Zeit" journalist Lau reminds, who draws a bow to his May Day speech,

And another former SPD chancellor gets his fat off: Gerhard Schröder.

Garnished with laughter and approving clapping from the audience, Amann doubts his "mental sanity" and even suspects alcohol addiction.

The journalist: “The New York Times reported how much he drinks.

The flower indicates that he's really into alcohol."

Conclusion of the “Maischberger.

The week” talks

The program made it clear that fear as a consultant is probably just as bad as a war over ideals to the last man.

The presenter Frank Elstner, who was also a guest on the show on the occasion of his 80th birthday, recalled his expulsion from the Czech Republic with his mother when he was three years old during the notorious "death march from Brno" in May 1945, during which more than 5,000 people lost their lives.

Elsner dreams of the horrors of war to this day.

His comment was probably the most honest on the show: He felt "sorry" for politicians, said Elsner, trying to "do something right" in this situation.

And he admitted: "I have absolutely no idea what you can do there." But he recommended one thing: "You shouldn't show the picture of Putin so often."