As of: March 16, 2024, 6:51 p.m
By: Florian Naumann
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The Union is pushing ahead with the traffic lights when it comes to Taurus - but in the midst of the coalition scandal, there are signs of a new course for the CDU and CSU.
Berlin - For weeks, the traffic light coalition has been arguing about the delivery of Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine, despite all the Chancellor's words of authority - a veritable eternity given the usual half-lives of political debates.
The trouble is accompanied by an embarrassing number of flops and failures: a wiretapping scandal, accusations of lying to Olaf Scholz, horror at a speech by SPD parliamentary group leader Rolf Mützenich.
On Saturday (March 16th), the SPD leadership felt compelled to help Comrade Mützenich: critics had deliberately “misinterpreted” the speech, said party leader Lars Klingbeil.
But behind all the trouble, the hustle and bustle could resolve itself: According to a report in the
Tagesspiegel
, even the Union could now stop calling for the Taurus for Ukraine.
Just a few days ago, the CDU and CSU even raised fears of a kind of coalition break with a motion in the Bundestag.
Traffic light politicians openly toyed with the idea of voting against their own government.
Taurus change of opinion at the CSU?
Cruise missile “over-inflated”
According to information from the Berliner Zeitung, CSU regional group leader Alexander Dobrindt initiated a change of course at the beginning of the week.
The thrust is now that the Taurus is being “inflated” – once again the Union will not put the question on Parliament’s agenda, according to faction circles.
In fact, in the Bundeswehr-Air Force conversations leaked by Russia, it was also stated that the Taurus would not change the course of the war.
This statement is attributed to Air Force Inspector Ingo Gerhartz.
The Tagesspiegel
suspected a domestic political calculation
behind this alleged change of heart.
On the one hand, Dobrindt looked at the people in the mouth at events in his home country - such as the strong beer tapping at Nockherberg - and noticed a new mood.
Always an important argument for Markus Söder's party.
On the other hand, there is widespread fear that the SPD will portray the Union and CDU leader Friedrich Merz as a “warmonger” and Scholz as a level-headed leading figure.
What is known is that in several surveys there are majorities against Taurus delivery.
SPD parliamentary group leader Rolf Mützenich (front) receives a lot of criticism for his Taurus speech - but there are also doubts in the Union.
© Montage: Imago/Ipon/dts news agency/fn
In addition, the opinion on the Taurus question in the Union is anything but unanimous.
Merz himself now told the
Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung
that there were critical voices within the party.
Merz explained that he takes these “seriously” and also gives them space: “With us, no one is reprimanded.” Meanwhile, Mützenich came under massive criticism for his Taurus speech - but at the same time it could have stung a political hornet's nest.
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Mützenich in the crossfire: Ricarda Lang criticizes “backsliding into old Russia policy”
Mützenich had criticized in the Bundestag that some questions surrounding the Ukraine war were already being described as “an eyesore”.
He asked the plenary: “Isn’t it time that we not only talk about how to fight a war, but also think about how to freeze a war and later end it?”
The Greens and the FDP were particularly outraged.
The speech was a “relapse into the social democracy’s old Russia policy,” Green Party leader Ricarda Lang told broadcaster
Welt
on Friday .
Her Bavarian party colleague Anton Hofreiter accused Mützenich of encouraging Vladimir Putin to “escalate the war even further.”
FDP leader Christian Lindner attested that the SPD was abusing the debate about a delivery of Taurus cruise missiles for election campaign maneuvers.
Taurus soon to be off the table?
Domestic politics could be decisive – also for the CDU
Klingbeil now countered these voices.
Of course we will have to discuss how peace can be achieved.
But anyone who associates Mützenich's words with the fact that the SPD, the Chancellor or the SPD faction would move away from Ukraine has deliberately misinterpreted Mützenich's speech or wants to misinterpret it.
Ultimately, however, domestic politics could be the deciding factor in the Taurus question.
This is frowned upon in the Ukraine debate, but it is a pragmatic political path: in 2005, the SPD won the federal election as the “peace party” in the Iraq War.
And in Germany there are several delicate state elections coming up in 2024, especially in the eastern federal states of Thuringia, Saxony and Brandenburg, where different attitudes towards Russia prevail.
Perhaps not coincidentally, Saxony's CDU Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer is also one of the critics of the pro-Taurus course in the Union.
Meanwhile, Scholz himself was working on his own Taurus alternative at the “Weimar Triangle” meeting on Friday: he announced a “coalition for long-range rocket artillery” with Emmanuel Macron and Donald Tusk.
What caught the eye was the word “far-reaching” – range is the Taurus’ particular strength.
“Long-range” weapons were also called for in a Bundestag resolution.
However, the cruise missiles are not “artillery”.
(
fn with material from dpa and AFP
)