As of: February 21, 2024, 12:13 p.m
By: Stephanie Munk
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An internal FDP letter shows: The traffic light has extremely contradictory positions when it comes to Ukraine policy.
Scholz seems to want to avoid certain irritating words.
Berlin - It is well known that the rifts between the traffic light parties FDP, SPD and Greens are deep - an internal FDP paper now shows how deep.
This time it's not about controversial domestic issues such as economic policy or migration, but about the war in Ukraine - and the question of how boldly one appears towards Russia's ruler Vladimir Putin.
The FDP paper, which was apparently leaked to
Bild
, lists one point of conflict on Ukraine policy after another.
Specifically, the internal letter is about a joint proposal from the traffic light factions to support Ukraine, which the Bundestag is scheduled to vote on this week.
The FDP paper shows that when formulating the text of the application, the Chancellor's party, the SPD and the FDP, were sometimes miles apart.
Remarkable: The smallest coalition partner, the FDP, appears to have prevailed on most points.
Olaf Scholz on February 20, 2024 before an SPD parliamentary group meeting in Berlin.
© IMAGO/Bernd Elmenthaler
Traffic light motion on Ukraine: SPD apparently did not want to allow criticism of Russia policy
One of the points of conflict between the traffic light parties was: Can the joint motion criticize the Russia policy of the past years and decades, keyword: cozying up to Putin?
According to
Bild,
the FDP writes that the SPD “did not want to allow any criticism” of German “support behavior” “just as it did not want to admit any wrongdoing in the wake of the annexation of Crimea 10 years ago.”
In other words: Scholz's SPD didn't want it to be black and white that Putin was still massively underestimated after he attacked the Ukrainian Crimean peninsula in 2014, in violation of international law.
At that time, a grand coalition of the Union and the SPD ruled under Angela Merkel.
Likewise, the SPD apparently did not want the proposal to include the goal of Ukraine liberating Crimea from Russian occupation: “SPD did not want to explicitly mention the liberation of Crimea,” according to
Bild
in the internal FDP letter.
The FDP apparently prevailed on both issues.
The draft application now states: “Putin’s imperialism has been underestimated for years.
It was a mistake that Germany did not distance itself sufficiently from Putin's regime." And: It is important to enable Ukraine to "liberate the occupied territories including Crimea."
Does Ukraine have to win the war?
Scholz hesitation is again a point of conflict
Next difference: The FDP accuses the SPD of refusing to “speak in any way” about Ukraine having to “win” the war against Russia.
As a reminder: Since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, Chancellor Scholz has largely avoided explicitly speaking of a victory for Ukraine.
Instead, he always emphasizes that Russia must not win the war and Ukraine must not lose it.
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Although this sounds like quibble, Scholz apparently still attaches great importance to it - possibly for good reason.
But this time the liberals apparently had the upper hand: “For peace in Europe and beyond, it is essential that Ukraine wins this defensive battle,” the motion now states.
Another accusation from the FDP: The SPD did not want to allow the application to state explicitly that “only a military solution can lead to the complete restoration of territorial integrity and sovereignty.”
Here too, the Greens and the FDP probably had the upper hand.
The application states: “Only Ukraine’s military self-assertion will force Russia to end its aggression, which violates international law.”
Taurus deliveries to Ukraine: Scholz's vague statements prevailed
In one point, however, the traffic light factions' joint proposal on Ukraine remains as vague as Scholz's SPD apparently wanted: regarding the delivery of Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine.
The word “Taurus” is not mentioned in the application - the SPD under Chancellor Scholz probably successfully prevented that.
Instead, the traffic light application speaks of “long-range weapon systems” for Ukraine.
It is probably clear to everyone that this implicitly means Taurus cruise missiles - as Green MP Anton Hofreiter confirmed to
Spiegel
.
The fact that the word shouldn't be said made the FDP defense expert Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann so angry that she now wants to vote in the Bundestag together with the Union for their proposal to deliver Taurus to Ukraine.
“For me there is one word missing that is absolutely correct: Taurus.
That’s why I’m voting for the Union’s proposal this week,” she said on Wednesday (February 21) in an interview with the
Münchner Merkur
.
Scholz refuses to deliver Taurus to Ukraine – FDP finds this “unbelievable”
Scholz has been refusing for months to deliver the Taurus rockets that Ukraine has been longing for - on the grounds, among other things, that Germany also has to provide Ukraine with geodata.
An argument that the CDU dismisses as an excuse - and FDP politician Strack-Zimmermann had already declared in October 2023 that the Chancellor's behavior regarding the Taurus deliveries was “unbelievable”.
“Despite belongs in kindergarten, not in the Chancellery,” she wrote on X (formerly Twitter) at the time.
Whether the government decides to deliver the Taurus cruise missiles may become clear this week.
The Green politician Hofreiter formulated his expectations very clearly in
Spiegel
: “The consequence of this application can only be that it releases the Taurus.” Canada has also decided to deliver new weapons: the country is providing Ukraine with 800 state-of-the-art drones.
(smu)