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Friedrich Merz, the federal chairman of the CDU, speaks at a CDU policy program conference.
© Bernd Weißbrod/dpa
Union parliamentary group leader Friedrich Merz has accused Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) of pitiful behavior with regard to his foreign and French policy.
The relationship between Germany and France is “as good as destroyed,” criticized the CDU leader at a regional conference on his party’s new basic program on Friday evening in Stuttgart.
Stuttgart - Merz was referring to the Ukraine conference in Paris last week.
Scholz and President Emmanuel Macron sat opposite each other for two hours without saying a word with their arms crossed, and later Scholz explained at an “unfortunate press conference” why he did not want to deliver the Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine.
Merz then referred to the French policy of former chancellors: “Imagine for a brief moment in your mind’s eye - Konrad Adenauer in Paris, Helmut Kohl in Paris, Angela Merkel in Paris, even Willy Brandt, Helmut Schmidt and you name them too nor Gerhard Schröder - none of them would have behaved as pitifully as the German Chancellor did last week.”
Merz spoke out in favor of supporting Ukraine and defending Germany and Europe.
Russia must lose the war, Ukraine must win.
Recently there have been repeated disagreements between Germany and France.
At the conference, Macron did not rule out sending ground troops to Ukraine.
Scholz later contradicted this.
dpa