Renowned for his unfailing phlegm, Olaf Scholz almost went off the rails: “It’s time to have a serious debate, and not to compete in one-upmanship”, he dryly opposed those who are now pressing to deliver fighter jets to Ukraine.

The German Chancellor thus wanted to nip in the bud the new debate which is inflaming Germany. No sooner had he authorized the delivery of Leopard 2 battle tanks to Ukraine than the pressure mounted for Germany to take the next step: the delivery of combat aircraft.

A week ago, when he announced to the Bundestag his decision to supply Leopard 2s to kyiv, Olaf Scholz was careful to specify the limits that Germany had set itself: no delivery of combat aircraft and no direct ground involvement of NATO troops in the war in Ukraine. To those who question Germany’s solidarity, he reminded that, along with the United States and Great Britain, Germany is the largest arms supplier to Ukraine.

After months of intense debate and procrastination much criticized by the German press, Olaf Scholz had therefore finally decided. But the next debate has already begun. Volodymyr Zelensky is now asking Berlin and Washington for fighter planes. He keeps reminding us that time is running out.

Christoph Heusgen, president of the Munich Security Conference, has clearly taken a stand for the delivery of combat aircraft to Ukraine. This former adviser to Angela Merkel on foreign policy issues believes that this option would be “adequate” to better protect Ukraine against new Russian attacks. Two planes come into play: the American F-16s – Joe Biden has already firmly said no to this option – and the MIG-29s, Soviet-made planes, such as those available to Poland, a member of NATO.

After the fall of the Wall in 1989 and unification in 1990, the NVA was dissolved. Part of its troops and equipment is integrated into the Bundeswehr, the army of West Germany. This is the case of about twenty MIG-29, the most powerful fighter plane of the late Warsaw Pact.

MIG-29s are taken over by the Luftwaffe, the West German Air Force. In September 2003, Berlin decided to sell 22 MIG-29s to Poland for the symbolic sum of one euro per plane. Germany keeps only one copy. It is on display at the Luftwaffe Museum in Gatow, near Berlin.

Are we going to see a debate similar to the one that took place around the Leopard 2s? In order to be able to export these German-made combat tanks to Ukraine, Warsaw needed the approval of Berlin. Germany, the former owner of these 22 MIG-29s, will have to give the green light once again.

“Whenever it comes to delivering new weapons to Ukraine, it’s the United States and Germany that are at the center of the debate,” noted one columnist. For the time being, German public opinion is still in favor of the delivery of arms. But she is also very worried.

Olaf Scholz, much criticized by the press for his slowness to act and his silence, takes great care to reassure his compatriots: “When it comes to a question as important as weapons, you have to weigh the pros and cons of rational way. The chancellor and his new defense minister, Boris Pistorius, fear above all an escalation of the conflict which would lead, says Olaf Scholz, to “a war between NATO and Russia”.

The president of the Social Democratic Party, Saskia Esken, believes that the decision to provide fighter jets depends on the situation in which one finds oneself and she refuses, at the present time, to reject this option categorically.

Same dissonance within the small Liberal Democratic Party (FDP), a member of the ruling coalition. While the big names in the party, in particular Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, the chairwoman of the Bundestag Defense Committee, have come out against sending fighter jets to Ukraine, other liberals refuse that a final decision is taken in the current state of affairs.