As of: March 14, 2024, 3:29 p.m
By: Stephanie Munk
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The Union voted in the Bundestag on Taurus deliveries to Ukraine.
These are the dissenters from the traffic light coalition.
Berlin - The CDU/CSU parliamentary group is not giving up on the question of Taurus deliveries to Ukraine: On Thursday (March 13th) they had a roll call vote in the Bundestag on whether Taurus missiles should be delivered to Ukraine.
The Union is demanding that Taurus be delivered - and is relying on those who deviate from Scholz's line within the traffic light coalition.
The first result was clear on Thursday at 12.30 p.m.: As expected, the Union failed with its application.
188 MPs voted for the Union proposal, 494 MPs against it.
Five MPs abstained.
There were dissenters from both the Union faction and the traffic light coalition.
Traffic light coalition facing breaking point: debate about dissenters
Chancellor Olaf Scholz made it clear several times that there would be no Taurus deliveries under him.
And in the coalition agreement, the traffic light parties stated that they would not vote deviating from the party line.
Nevertheless, every member of parliament is in principle completely free to make his decision - and some representatives of the traffic light coalition clearly have a different opinion than Scholz on Taurus.
Leading politicians from the FDP and the Greens in particular have loudly announced this publicly.
However, not many people wanted to go so far as to vote with the Union for the Taurus proposal.
Even in advance, it was considered impossible that the Union proposal would receive a majority in parliament.
It was said that the traffic light parties had secured their common line before the vote.
Dissenter in the traffic light: Strack-Zimmermann voted with Union for Taurus deliveries
Nevertheless, there were dissenters in the FDP.
Here is an overview:
The FDP defense politician
Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann
voted for the Union's proposal - as she did in the first vote.
FDP Vice President Wolfgang Kubicki
also
expressed his approval and, according to
Reuters,
also voted for the motion.
The FDP defense politician Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann voted again for the Union's Taurus proposal © IMAGO/Bernd Elmenthaler
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Kubicki's assessment that other FDP politicians could vote for the Union's proposal has not been confirmed.
Kubicki had declared before the vote that at least twelve FDP MPs could vote for the Union proposal - but only if it did not bash the traffic lights and the Chancellor.
FDP chairman Christian Dürr
called on the Liberals in advance not to vote for the CDU/CSU motion.
“We think it’s the right thing to do, no question about it, but these symbolic requests don’t really get us anywhere.”
FDP General Secretary Bijan Djir-Sarai also defended Scholz and accused the Union of abusing the issue for party political purposes.
“I really like a head of government who acts prudently, especially on issues like war and peace – even if I personally have a different opinion about Taurus,” he told the
world
.
13 Green MPs for Taurus deliveries - they still rejected the Union's application
There are also members of the Green Party who want to deliver Taurus missiles to Ukraine:
At least 13 Green MPs signed a joint statement calling for Taurus deliveries.
However, the signatories in the Bundestag did not agree to the Union proposal.
Green MP Anton Hofreiter, a tough critic of Scholz on the Taurus issue, also did not want to vote for the Union proposal in the Bundestag.
It is dangerous “if, in the current situation, a security policy issue is charged domestically for various reasons,” the Green politician told
Spiegel
in advance .
Dissenters from the Greens in the traffic lights?
“Domestic politically motivated” applications are kitized
On Wednesday, Green Party leader Britta Haßelmann also spoke out in favor of Taurus deliveries.
It's about giving Ukraine more support in defending itself against the Russian war of aggression, she said.
“It is clear to the Green faction that Taurus should and can be part of it.” Haßelmann also rejected the Union proposal as a maneuver motivated by domestic politics.
Otherwise, no dissenters are to be expected from the ranks of the Greens, explained the First Parliamentary Managing Director of the Green Party, Irene Mihalic.
No one from the ranks of the Greens agreed to the Union's proposal.
CSU regional group leader Alexander Dobrindt was still hoping for dissenters in the traffic light coalition: “A number of traffic light politicians have publicly emphasized in the past few days and weeks that they are in favor of supplying this weapon system to Ukraine,” he told the
Augsburger Allgemeine
.
“We are now giving these colleagues the opportunity to adapt their voting behavior to their public statements.”
However, the Union also has dissidents within its own ranks.
While MPs
Heike Brehmer
,
Hans-Peter Friedrich
and
Peter Ramsauer
abstained from the vote, two Union politicians voted against their own group's motion:
Mario Czaja
and
Emmi Zeulner
.
Czaja already voted against the Union's request in the last vote on the Taurus delivery in January.
The CDU politician explained his vote in the Bundestag at the time by saying that “the delivery of Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine carries the risk that the conflict will further escalate and tensions will worsen.”
Czaja explained that he continues to “continue to advocate solidarity with Ukraine”, but the primary aim should be to bring Russia to the negotiating table.
(smu)