As of: January 19, 2024, 1:26 p.m
By: Robert Wagner
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Boris Pistorius has “failed so far” with his specific plans, says Johann Wadephul (CDU).
The reserve officer also praises the minister.
Berlin - He has only been in office for a year, but according to surveys he is the most popular politician in Germany: Defense Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD) is offensive with his clear words, for example with his demand last autumn to make Germany "war-proof".
But the Union is now clouding this picture.
Group deputy Johann Wadephul, himself a reserve officer and defense policy expert for the CDU, draws a negative assessment of the first year of Boris Pistorius's term in office.
“Pistorius has failed so far in his initiatives and ideas,” Wadephul now told the
editorial network Germany (RND)
.
Federal Defense Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD) visits Bundeswehr soldiers in Lithuania in December 2023.
© Kay Nietfeld/dpa
Devastating verdict on Boris Pistorius: “So far his initiatives and ideas have failed”
This ruling applies to Pistorius' demand for a higher defense budget and also to the "repeated flirtation with a reintroduction of compulsory military service," said the CDU politician.
“Every time it was a matter of crisply presented interviews - which were then rather brusquely cleared away by the Chancellor, the SPD party or parliamentary group leaders,” said Wadephul.
Not enough has happened during Pistorius' term in office, even in the procurement system, which has been widely criticized, and with a view to the announced reforms of the encrusted structures in the Bundeswehr.
It is not the first time that defense politician Wadephul has criticized the incumbent defense minister.
It was not until November 2023 that he issued a “catastrophic finding” to the Bundeswehr under Pistorius’ responsibility.
The progress in the army announced by Pistorius was “stuck in its early stages and the stagnation is of course now Boris Pistorius’s responsibility,” he told the
German Press Agency (dpa)
at the time .
Shortly before, a study had come to the conclusion that Pistorius' procurement reform had "largely failed".
Also words of praise for Boris Pistorius: “Hit the right tone”
Wadephul, who, according to
RND
, was personally promoted to lieutenant colonel in the reserve by Pistorius on the sidelines of a NATO exercise in the summer of 2023, also had words of praise for his highest superior.
He admitted that Pistorius had found his position as supreme commander of the Bundeswehr “very quickly”.
“Right from the start, he struck the right tone with the soldiers, which is very, very good for the troops.
And he told the public with welcome clarity what the security policy situation is, what that means for the Bundeswehr and that our entire country must address defense issues,” said the CDU politician.
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In the SPD, Boris Pistorius is considered a possible replacement for chancellor if Olaf Scholz resigns
This positive image apparently also prevails among the population.
Pistorius has not only been number one among the most popular politicians for many months.
According to a survey by the polling institute Insa for
Bild
from the beginning of January, almost two thirds of Germans (64 percent) support a change of chancellor in favor of Pistorius instead of Olaf Scholz.
In fact, there are also said to be considerations within the SPD about replacing the Chancellor in the legislative period that runs until 2025, at least if Olaf Scholz resigns in the foreseeable future.
The hottest candidate to succeed Scholz in this case is Boris Pistorius, as the Germany correspondent of the Italian newspaper
La Repubblica
reported.