As of: March 15, 2024, 6:19 p.m
By: Christoph Gschoßmann
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Even within the traffic light parties, SPD parliamentary group leader Rolf Mützenich is experiencing strong headwinds for his statements about Ukraine.
Scholz should intervene.
Munich - A Bundestag speech with a lot of explosive power: The statements by SPD parliamentary group leader Rolf Mützenich are causing an uproar, especially within the traffic light parties.
There is criticism not only from Ukraine, in the person of ex-German ambassador Andrij Melnyk, who described him as the “most disgusting German politician”, but also from the camps of the FDP and the Greens.
In his argument against Taurus deliveries to Kiev, Mützenich indicated that Ukraine would have to come to terms with Russia on its own territory.
Greens: Mützenich speech “Relapse into the Russia policy of the Social Democrats”
Mützenich had said before the Taurus vote: “Isn't it time that we not only talk about how to fight a war, but also think about how we can freeze a war and end it later?
Aren't these questions also politically important?" He also said that it must be dealt with that many countries outside Europe have a different view of this war.
The question must therefore be asked “how we can convince these countries to free ourselves more from this shackles of war in Europe”.
The speech was a “relapse into the social democracy’s old Russia policy,” Green Party leader Ricarda Lang told broadcaster
Welt
on Friday .
“It is clear that freezing this conflict would ultimately lead to incredible suffering for the many people in these occupied territories,” Lang continued.
Green foreign politician Anton Hofreiter called Mützenich's proposal on
Welt
an encouragement to Putin to "escalate the war even further."
This damages Germany's reputation in the world.
Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock also shook her head when Mützenich spoke.
She pressed her lips together, fiddled with her cell phone and seemed to be struggling to keep her composure.
Lindner accuses the SPD of abusing the Taurus debate as an election campaign
FDP leader Christian Lindner accused the coalition partner SPD of abusing the debate about the delivery of Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine for election campaign maneuvers.
In the
Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung
, Lindner emphasized: “Questions of the security of the Federal Republic of Germany and the existence of democracy in Ukraine must not become the subject of the primary election campaign, as the chairman of the SPD parliamentary group tried to do.”
Lindner's party colleague, Europe's leading candidate Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, demanded a quick explanation from Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) and his party.
“If Rolf Mützenich, who as chairman speaks for the entire SPD parliamentary group, seriously calls for a freeze on the war in Ukraine, the Chancellor’s SPD party is obviously moving away from the agreed turnaround,” said Strack-Zimmermann, who spoke out in favor of Taurus deliveries had, the magazine
Stern
.
Strack-Zimmermann spoke of a “paradigm change” for the SPD.
According to government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit, statements from the parliamentary chamber are not evaluated by the government.
Kubicki accuses Mützenich of Article 38 of the constitution
The FDP chairman Wolfgang Kubicki also said to the
editorial network Germany
(Friday): “The way Mr. Mützenich is demanding 'consequences' for voting behavior he dislikes is in any case at war with our constitution.”
Kubicki advises Mützenich “urgently to refrain from making such unconstitutional statements that are directed against Article 38 of the Basic Law.” Article 38 states that members of the Bundestag are not bound to orders and instructions and are only subject to their conscience.
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Wolfgang Kubicki accuses Rolf Mützenich of “unconstitutional statements”.
(Montage) © Jonathan Penschek/dpa, Kay Nietfeld/dpa
Mützenich himself rejected the criticism of his statements.
In his speech, he “clearly spoke out in favor of supporting Ukraine, including with weapons and ammunition,” he told the
Rheinische Post
(Saturday edition).
In addition, like many before him, he “suggested thinking not only about military aid, but also about the conditions for a possible end to the war.”
Mützenich emphasized that he was “in no way advocating the abandonment of the territories in the east of Ukraine and Crimea that were occupied in violation of international law.”
Only the Ukrainian government can decide on a ceasefire and a freeze in fighting.
At the same time, he added: “This does not relieve us of our responsibility to also think about ways and perspectives for the time after the end of the war.”
(cgsc with dpa and afp)