Thuringia’s Prime Minister Ramelow is known for not always fully sharing his party’s positions. There is such a disagreement over the question of whether it is right for the West to supply arms to Ukraine. But the 66-year-old bothers even more.
Erfurt (dpa/th) – With his attitude to arms deliveries to Ukraine, Thuringia’s Prime Minister and left-wing politician Bodo Ramelow is not on the party line. The Left Federal Chairman Martin Schirdewan underlined this and at the same time distanced himself from Ramelow’s position.
Schirdewan told the Funke Mediengruppe newspapers that arms deliveries were not the party’s position. However, he shares Ramelow’s view that the pressure on Putin must increase. Ramelow had previously told the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”: “I used to be against arms deliveries. Today I would like to add that anyone who is attacked has the right to defend themselves.”
Russia launched a war of aggression against Ukraine on February 24. Ukraine is also defending itself with weapons that have been supplied from Western countries such as Germany.
Schirdewan called on the German government to “finally do everything to persuade Russia to start peace negotiations.” In his view, this includes an “EU diplomatic initiative” to involve China and India. “As leftists, we all agree that only diplomacy can ensure lasting peace and that the armaments companies in particular will benefit from a long war of attrition,” Schirdewan told the Funke media group.
In an interview with the “SZ”, Ramelow again criticized his controversial party colleague Sahra Wagenknecht – for example for claiming that the federal government’s sanctions against Russia would harm Germany more than Russia. “I don’t know why Ms. Wagenknecht keeps saying this untruthfully,” said Ramelow. The argument that the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline had to be opened in order to signal Russia’s willingness to negotiate was also “nonsense.”
The head of government also expressed anger at the way his party was handling his presidency of the Federal Council. The 66-year-old said he was proud to have represented the Federal Republic to the outside world for a year. “My federal party didn’t notice that.” Ramelow is Germany’s only left prime minister to date and was the rotating President of the Bundesrat from November 2021 to the end of October 2022. In this capacity he undertook several trips – including to Chile.
Ramelow accused the Left party executive of not having seen a need for an exchange about his role as President of the Federal Council. “I haven’t spoken to my party’s international department about any of my trips because they didn’t even get in touch,” Ramelow said. He had to “gently push” the left-wing parliamentary group in order to be able to present his work.