CDU and SPD are at odds over arms deliveries to Ukraine. In truth, the federal government does not want to supply any weapons to Ukraine, according to the opposition. It also bothers him that the chancellor does not define any specific war goals. The social democrat Stegner is outraged by Maischberger’s “accusation of treason”.
A heated argument has broken out between the traffic light government and the Union. It was triggered by CDU defense expert Roderich Kiesewetter. He had made serious allegations against Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Sunday at “Anne Will”. Kiesewetter said Scholz was playing for time when it came to supplying arms to Ukraine. Scholz does not give him the impression that he is on the side of Ukraine. Worse, “I’m afraid the chancellor doesn’t want Ukraine to win this war,” he said. For Kiesewetter, winning means that the Russian army must withdraw completely from the Ukraine.
With Sandra Maischberger in the ARD, the dispute goes into the next round. This time, the CDU foreign politician Norbert Röttgen and Ralf Stegner from the SPD fought a heated battle of words. However, Röttgen does not want to get along with the war goals formulated by Kiesewetter. He can imagine that the Russian army will retreat to the positions before the start of the Ukraine war.
In a new book, Röttgen takes German foreign policy to court. The book, which will be officially released this Wednesday, is entitled: “Never helpless again”. At Maischberger, he primarily criticizes the federal government and Chancellor Scholz. “Scholz has not yet uttered the sentence ‘Ukraine should win the war,'” he says. Scholz only ever said that Putin shouldn’t win. However, the Federal Government does not define when this is specifically the case. He is certain that Scholz is deliberately not talking about Ukraine winning the war.
Stegner calls Kiesewetter’s and Röttgen’s statements an “accusation of treason.” “I find it irresponsible to say something like that.” In the opposition one could talk, a federal chancellor had to make decisions that were appropriate to the matter and coordinated with the other western countries. Scholz’s decisions should not lead to Germany becoming a participant in the war either. The German government has a clear view: “Putin must not win the war, and Ukraine must not lose it.” The aim of the war must not be set by Germany. That is Ukraine’s business.
Röttgen is not impressed by this. Ukraine won the war if Russia retreats to pre-war positions. “The federal government hasn’t demanded a goal yet. My goal is: we have to ban war from Europe,” demands Röttgen.
Stegner formulates a different war aim, which is actually different from that of the Union. Chancellor, government and the allies had made it clear “that we want to support Ukraine so that it doesn’t lose the war, that Putin, who is a war criminal, doesn’t succeed in invading another country. That’s it Goal. But as Germans, we can’t go and say we’re now conducting some sort of abstract war goal debate.”
Apparently, even the Union disagrees on the definition of when Ukraine won the war. The Ukrainian President Selenskyj recently called for the total withdrawal of Russian troops from the entire Ukraine – in other words, what Kiesewetter had also called for.
Meanwhile, Polish President Andrzej Duda has accused the federal government of breaching its word. When ring exchanged tanks, the promises were not kept. Germany had committed to supply tanks to replace tanks supplied by Poland to Ukraine. Poland is very disappointed about this.
Many things are defined that are not correct, Stegner explains in the evening at Maischberger. The Polish President did not lease the truth either. He doubts that the exchange of rings agreed in the Bundestag provides for arms deliveries to Poland by May 25. “The delivery will happen,” promises Stegner.
Here, too, Röttgen has a different opinion. He speaks of the “politics of delaying”. The Federal Government did not want the Bundestag’s decision to exchange rings and is now trying not to carry out the Bundestag’s decision. “That is the objective fact: it is not delivered and it is not implemented because it is not wanted.” But: “We can deliver,” says Röttgen at Maischberger. Germany’s armaments industry “can produce that”. He also proposes sending some of the Leopard 2 tanks from the Bundeswehr stocks to Ukraine. These weapons are on the border with France or Austria, but are more important in Ukraine, according to the foreign policy expert.
