Ring exchange trouble: Merz is the driver and travels to Poland – a second time earlier than the traffic light

Created: 07/28/2022, 15:23

Critics accuse the traffic light coalition of being too hesitant to deliver weapons in the Ukraine war.

CDU leader Merz wants to calm things down in Warsaw.

News ticker.

• Trip to Poland

  by the

  CDU leader

  : Friedrich Merz meets President Morawiecki

• Allegations

  in the

  ring exchange

  : Berlin delivers too slowly in the Ukraine war

• Affront

  to the

  chancellor

  ?

  Merz travels earlier than Scholz in the ring exchange dispute

Warsaw - Germany and its EU partners are getting stressed about the Russian invasion of Ukraine: Poland is upset about the lack of subsequent deliveries from the Federal Republic - but not the chancellor, but the German opposition leader is traveling there.

However, Friedrich Merz did not tweet a sleeping car like he did on his trip to Kyiv on the outward journey to Warsaw on Wednesday (July 27).

The CDU leader's trip to Poland: Friedrich Merz meets President Morawiecki

But what is confirmed by a Union faction spokesman and official photos: Merz spoke in Warsaw with the Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki.

Details were not initially given.

Merz also met the former head of government and current opposition politician Donald Tusk and the chairman of the national conservative Polish governing party PiS, Jaroslaw Kaczynski.

Mediator in the ring exchange dispute with Poland?

CDU leader Friedrich Merz in Warsaw © Michal Dyjuk/dpa

Allegations in the exchange of rings: Berlin delivers too slowly in the Ukraine war

In view of the upset about Germany's behavior when it came to arms deliveries to Kyiv, Merz sought contact with Polish politicians.

Poland had left Soviet-built tanks to Ukraine and was supposed to get replacements from allies like Germany.

Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) recently admitted that the ring exchange with Poland is not going as planned.

Poland has surrendered more than 200 tanks to Ukraine but is unhappy with the German offer of compensation.

Visits to Ukraine during the war - Politics shows solidarity

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Affront to the Chancellor?

Merz travels earlier than Scholz in the ring exchange dispute

Merz's trip to Poland can certainly be understood as a snub to Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD).

The CDU leader had previously asked the federal government to pass on tanks to Poland as promised and accused the traffic light coalition under Scholz: "The public is being deceived."

On Friday (July 29), Merz wants to travel to Lithuania for talks.

He had already traveled to Ukraine at the beginning of May - Scholz had not yet - and was received in Kyiv by President Volodymyr Zelenskyj.