SPD leader Klingbeil sees Germany as a "leading power"

Created: 06/21/2022, 10:09 am

SPD leader Lars Klingbeil.

© Fabian Sommer/dpa

Due to its history, Germany has been rather cautious on the international stage after 1945.

According to SPD leader Klingbeil, the Federal Republic must assume a new role in the future.

Berlin - According to SPD leader Lars Klingbeil, Germany must claim to be a "leading power" in international politics.

In a keynote speech at a conference of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation on Tuesday, he justified this with the significantly growing international expectations of Germany.

"After almost 80 years of restraint, Germany now has a new role in the international coordinate system."

The country has gained a high level of trust in recent decades, but this is also accompanied by expectations.

"Germany is more and more the focus, we should fulfill the expectations that are placed on us," said Klingbeil.

"Germany must claim to be a leading power."

So far, Germany has seen itself more as a middle power and not as a leading power in international politics.

With his turning point speech after the start of the Ukraine war, however, Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) turned around in German foreign security policy and, above all, initiated a massive build-up of the Bundeswehr.

In the past few weeks, he has pointed out several times that Germany will thus have by far the strongest armed forces in Europe.

So far, however, Scholz has not spoken of a leading power like Klingbeil.

dpa