No delivery of battle tanks: Kühnert defends Scholz against "excessive criticism"

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Help from the second row: Kevin Kühnert (2nd from left) regrets criticism of Chancellor Olaf Scholz (front right)

Photo: IMAGO/Chris Emil Janssen / IMAGO/Chris Emil Janssen

SPD General Secretary Kevin Kühnert defended Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) in the dispute over deliveries of battle tanks to Ukraine.

»Excessive criticism and personal hostilities threaten to cause the political discourse about our aid to Ukraine to slip further and further from the facts.

That's unfortunate," said Kühnert of the "Rheinische Post" (Monday).

"Germany is a solidary and predictable partner of the democratic and free Ukraine, without losing sight of the fact that millions of Germans are seriously worried about Germany becoming involved in the war," said Kühnert.

"Our support will be greatest if we maintain a balance between the two perspectives and put personal animosity aside."

The chair of the defense committee in the Bundestag, Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann (FDP), had previously publicly attacked the chancellor.

For example, she said on Friday evening in ZDF's "heute journal": "History is looking at us, and unfortunately Germany has just failed." The communication, especially from Scholz, on this issue was a "catastrophe".

"We don't go it alone"

At the Ukraine conference in Ramstein on Friday, Germany decided not to deliver battle tanks to the war zone, despite considerable pressure from its allies.

The red-green-yellow federal government also did not issue any delivery permits to other countries for the tanks produced in Germany.

Kühnert told the newspaper: »The Germans are unbroken in solidarity with Ukraine, Germany is the second largest donor after the USA and we have successfully decoupled ourselves economically from Russia.

This interim report should always be a reason to be proud of what has been achieved so far.«

The cornerstones of German Ukraine policy under Chancellor Scholz have been on the table for the world to see for months and have not changed, Kühnert continued.

"We don't go it alone, we maintain our own ability to defend ourselves, we don't become a party to the war and we don't do anything that harms the Western alliance more than Vladimir Putin," said Kühnert, referring to the Russian president.

jme/dpa