As of: March 18, 2024, 6:21 a.m
By: Christoph Gschoßmann
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There is a lot of trouble in the traffic light coalition.
Rolf Mützenich's statements are criticized by the Greens and the FDP.
Secretary General Klingbeil defends him.
Berlin – Rolf Mützenich caused quite a stir with his statements about “freezing the war” in Ukraine.
Green Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock shook her head in disbelief during the speech.
Criticism from the other traffic light parties increased following the debate on the Taurus deliveries.
But now SPD General Secretary Lars Klingbeil defends Mützenich's words.
Klingbeil irritated by reactions to Mützenich statements – he speaks of “attacks”
Klingbeil said he was “severely irritated” by the events of the last few days.
He spoke of “attacks” on Mützenich.
He made it clear that the SPD was behind Ukraine: Anyone who interpreted the speech differently "either didn't understand it or wanted to misunderstand it."
29 MPs from the Green Party and 50 from the FDP made personal statements supporting Taurus deliveries, but they voted with their traffic light colleagues for coalition reasons.
Klingbeil went on to say that the question of how peace could be achieved would of course also have to be discussed.
SPD General Secretary Lars Klingbeil speaks in Berlin.
© Kay Nietfeld/dpa/archive image
In the debate about the delivery of the Taurus cruise missile to Ukraine, SPD parliamentary group leader Mützenich criticized the fact that some questions were already being described as “an eyesore”.
He asked: “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?” Politicians from the coalition partners FDP and the Greens criticized this sharply .
FDP man Wolfgang Kubicki spoke of “anti-constitutional statements”.
The SPD positions itself clearly against Ukraine's ceding of territory to Russia
Klingbeil made it clear: “Of course there are no cessions of territory.” Mützenich made it clear that they wanted Ukraine to get its territories back and Russia to disappear from Ukraine.
“We have made it clear that Russia must not win this war.
That is the position of the SPD.
There are no contradictions at all between the federal government, parliamentary group and party,” said the SPD leader.
Green Party leader Omid Nouripour sees this differently.
He sees a need for discussion within the SPD.
The SPD party conference resolution on this issue in December was completely different from what Mützenich last said, said Nouripour on Sunday in the ARD program “Report from Berlin”.
“The Social Democrats, especially Lars Klingbeil, the party leader, have done a lot in the last two years to collect and update the wrong Russia policy of the last few years.”
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Green Party leader Nouripour criticizes Mützenich: “The people in Ukraine don’t deserve that”
After the Russian attack on Ukraine, the SPD was accused of having underestimated the security risk posed by Russia for a long time.
The 2021 election manifesto said: “Peace in Europe cannot be against Russia, but only with Russia.” With the party congress resolution in December, this sentence was turned into the opposite: “As long as nothing fundamentally changes in Russia, Europe's security from Russia will be reduced need to be organized.”
Nouripour was bothered by Mützenich's choice of words: Freezing means “we simply ignore the devastating human rights violations that are already taking place in the occupied territories.
And the people of Ukraine don’t deserve that.”
(cgsc with dpa)