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Agnieszka Brugger and Roderich Kiesewetter at the SPIEGEL top-level discussion
The CDU foreign policy expert Roderich Kiesewetter blames the former Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg for the poor state of the Bundeswehr - and also sees failures on the part of ex-Chancellor Angela Merkel.
"The error was with Guttenberg, Thomas de Maizière tried to contain the error," said Kiesewetter in the SPIEGEL top-level discussion with moderator Markus Feldenkirchen about the former CSU defense minister and his CDU successor.
"Guttenberg complied with a request from the chancellor without batting an eyelid and saved almost ten billion euros, gave up conscription without us having an intensive debate."
Kiesewetter also criticized Merkel.
'I don't think she was very interested in delving deeper.
It was more important to her to keep the different social groups together," said the CDU politician: "She was someone who thought more about social cohesion than about the potential threats."
In the SPIEGEL talk, ex-NATO general Hans-Lothar Domröse, in contrast to Kiesewetter, took responsibility for his successor, de Maizière, in addition to Guttenberg.
"Both of them weren't entirely happy together," said Domröse.
Now the Bundeswehr is in a bad state.
The task of reforming the Bundeswehr and turning the tide in the troops falls to the new Defense Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD), who succeeds Christine Lambrecht, who resigned earlier this week.
With Pistorius, Chancellor Olaf Scholz breaks his promise of gender parity in the Federal Cabinet.
The problem with parity
"The cabinet is not filled equally," criticized the Greens' defense politician Agnieszka Brugger in the SPIEGEL talk.
Scholz had already calculated himself out of the gender balance last year.
"And of course I think it's right that a cabinet in 2023 should have equal representation.
Each party has its own responsibility.
But it cannot be that the Greens are always the only strivers who then also keep this promise of parity.«
During the conversation, Brugger indicated that she would have liked a woman to succeed Lambrecht.
"Great women were discussed, like Eva Högl or Siemtje Möller, both of whom I appreciate very much," said Brugger.
She said yes when asked whether she would have thought Högl or Möller a good choice for defense minister.
Högl is currently a military commissioner in the Bundestag, Möller is Parliamentary State Secretary in the Ministry of Defence.
Kiesewetter also regrets that there is no longer parity in the cabinet.
'Too bad it's not a woman.
But I believe that Mr. Pistorius will do well.
And the Federal Chancellor must make amends with the women, otherwise he will break his promise in the long run,” said Kiesewetter.
Ex-General Domröse: "I think we are now seeing a terribly bloody spring offensive"
Ex-NATO general Hans-Lothar Domröse meanwhile expects devastating developments in the war in Ukraine in the spring.
"The Ukrainians are fighting with Western weapons, but still alone against a world power that is poorly managed militarily, but can still do so much there," said Domröse in an interview with Feldenkirchen, Brugger and Kiesewetter.
After the so-called partial mobilization, 200,000 recruits strengthened the Russian military.
Russia could mobilize up to 25 million people.
"And I think it's technically impossible to beat them in the sense of destroying them, from a Ukrainian point of view," says Domröse.
"I believe that we are now seeing a terribly bloody spring offensive, where both sides are once again trying to achieve a military breakthrough in the sense of success," said the retired general give negotiations to avoid a longstanding trench warfare.
Kiesewetter contradicted Domröse's assessment in the SPIEGEL talk.
"I see very clearly how Russia is failing, how the sanctions are working," he said.
“I see that they have tremendous losses and that Putin is playing the time card.
I think we have to be patient and deliver more to Ukraine.” Brugger and Domröse were in favor of delivering Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine.