As of: March 16, 2024, 7:58 a.m
By: Peter Sieben
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The head of the Defense Committee sees Europe at risk from Putin.
She wants to go to the EU Parliament in June.
In the interview she reveals what she wants to change first.
Berlin – Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann has her bread roll firmly in her grasp as she rushes to her office.
“I haven’t had time to eat anything real today,” she says, throwing open the windows.
First some fresh air, a short break.
It's full days for the FDP politician and head of the Defense Committee in the Bundestag: the Ukraine war, the Taurus debate and now also the election campaign, because Strack-Zimmermann wants to go to the European Parliament.
The Berlin sun falls on the bookshelf, where there are tank models on a scale of 1:30 next to the complete Brockhaus series.
On the desk: a mini fighter jet in take-off position.
And before that now: Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann on the leather armchair.
“Now I’m ready,” says the 66-year-old.
Ms. Strack-Zimmermann, it was just your birthday.
Not surprisingly, a lot of friends sent me the corresponding Udo Jürgens song “At 66 years…” that day.
Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann wants to go to the European Parliament.
© Peter Sieben
But that's a good fit, right?
You now want to go to Europe, this is a new start.
I'm really looking forward to this new challenge.
In the FDP's election program with you as the top candidate there is the sentence: Europe must become simpler.
What is so difficult about Europe?
Political Europe is very abstract for many people.
Most people are interested in federal politics and are of course aware of what is happening in local politics right on their doorstep.
The European Union seems far removed from everyday life, yet over 50 percent of all laws and regulations come from Brussels.
Many European rules are complicated, bureaucratic and have a direct impact on our lives.
It therefore does not matter who represents the interests of citizens in Parliament and who is the President of the Commission.
That is why European legislation needs to be brought closer to people.
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And that's not the case yet?
There are a lot of people working in Brussels who want to achieve the best for a united Europe.
The rules are drawn up in the commission.
Medium-sized companies in particular feel this every day.
Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is responsible for the fact that we are now completely over-regulated.
European rules intervene in our lives in small ways.
Bureaucracy is tying the economy down.
But the EU was founded to make life simpler and easier for people in Europe, not more difficult.
Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann in conversation with editor Peter Sieben.
© Ippen.Media
In polls for the European elections, the AfD is at over 20 percent.
This is a double of the result from 2019. How do you explain this?
Presumably because one and the other want to work on federal politics.
This is fatal because the AfD is not European at all.
On the contrary.
AfD leader Alice Weidel said in an interview with the
Financial Times
that she would support Germany leaving the EU.
This means that the AfD wants to move its people into the European Parliament in order to ultimately leave the parliament and destroy the European idea.
By the way, that would be a catastrophe for the German economy.
I ask you, are you seriously inviting a guest who you know will start a fire in the living room as soon as he enters your apartment?
Those who are toying with voting for the AfD in the European elections should be aware that they are sawing off the branch on which they are sitting.
What do you mean?
Germany's prosperity is based on European freedoms.
Germany benefits most from the European internal market.
We can all live and work wherever we want within Europe and study wherever we want.
The right and left nationals want exactly the opposite.
Among them there will be a Europe of nationalists again.
In contrast to healthy patriotism, national thinking is poison for coexistence.
This is what European history teaches us.
You will also compete against Thomas Geisel from BSW, who you know from Düsseldorf.
For me this man is history.
Are you not interested in him?
He was a mediocre mayor who to this day has not come to terms with his deselection four years ago.
The fact that after 40 years of membership he turns away from the SPD, even though without the party he couldn't even have dreamed of the office of mayor, and switches to an anti-democratic and anti-European alliance, someone like that actually doesn't interest me.
The term “Grandma Courage” appears in your election campaign, with your likeness…
... alluding to the old blasphemous saying: "If you have a grandpa, send him to Europe..."
I'm thinking more of Bertolt Brecht.
To Brecht?
You can see this as an allusion to the drama “Mother Courage”.
The main character is a woman who needs war to survive.
Doesn't that give rise to false associations?
It may be that a few people have this association, but I assume that most people can classify it correctly.
Namely with a wink.
I understand.
You are in favor of a European army, i.e. a pan-European army.
Why is this an advantage in your opinion?
Security policy is not a European responsibility, but a national one.
Russia's attack on Ukraine also affects our peace in freedom.
Putin is massively arming himself and threatening us all.
We should therefore work together more.
This also saves resources.
Not every country needs to have all the capabilities to defend itself.
These necessary capabilities could be distributed among member states.
Do you think that Putin supporters in Germany are being incited to carry out attacks in this country?
In a country where citizens can move and live freely, one can never rule out dangers from outside.
We should always think about this in terms of security policy and classify it realistically, but without becoming hysterical.
You recently voted against the Chancellor in the Taurus debate.
Were you afraid that you would be perceived as a troublemaker at traffic lights?
I did not vote against the Chancellor.
The FDP parliamentary group, together with the SPD and the Greens, submitted a very far-reaching and important motion in the plenary session.
This motion was put to the vote by name.
MP Olaf Scholz also approved this request.
Also that Ukraine should become a member of NATO in the medium term after the end of the war.
The motion also clearly advocated providing Ukraine with weapons capable of working behind enemy lines.
What does that mean?
This means that they can work as far away as Russian-occupied eastern Ukraine in order to destroy Russian supplies.
For the FDP this means the use of the Taurus cruise missile.
However, the Chancellor and some in his party understand something different by this.
I therefore also supported the CDU's additional proposal, which was submitted at the same time - and in which the Taurus was explicitly mentioned by name.
If you are going to Brussels after the European elections, are you happy that you will be closer to your home Düsseldorf again?
My home is Düsseldorf.
Whether I reach Berlin after four and a half hours on the ICE or Brussels after two hours on the TGV has no bearing on my well-being or my enjoyment of work.
But you would like to abolish Strasbourg as a second parliamentary seat, right?
Every four weeks, members of the European Parliament travel with their staff from Brussels to Strasbourg, 400 km away.
The plenary sessions take place in Strasbourg and the committee and political group meetings take place in Brussels.
This back and forth costs a lot of money and is very time consuming.
To speak out in favor of just one location, the member states would have to unanimously change the EU treaties and that cannot be done with France for the time being.
Let's see what the future brings.