“The Russia connection of the SPD is a unique scandal in German politics.”
(Photo: dpa)
Berlin The Hamburg CDU member of the Bundestag, Christoph Ploß, has called on the SPD to set up an internal party study commission to review its Russia policy.
“The Russia connection of the SPD is a unique scandal in German politics,” Ploß told the Handelsblatt. “Here the SPD must finally create comprehensive clarity as to how much influence prominent SPD politicians such as Gerhard Schröder and Manuela Schwesig have in German politics in the interests of Russia.”
Ploß recommended that the SPD take Angela Merkel (CDU) as an example. On Tuesday, the ex-Chancellor publicly commented on her course on Russia for the first time since the end of her chancellorship.
Ploß said: “Angela Merkel’s statements have shown what Olaf Scholz lacks: self-reflection and the ability to explain important decisions for our country.”
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Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) recently rejected calls for his party to take a self-critical look at its Russia policy. “Since Adenauer’s time there have been these falsifying and slanderous representations of the SPD’s European and Russian policy, that annoys me,” the chancellor had told “Spiegel”.
Ukrainian ambassador criticizes Merkel
The SPD has repeatedly been criticized for being too close to Russia in recent decades. Today’s Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who played a key role in shaping Germany’s Russia policy as head of the Chancellery under SPD Chancellor Gerhard Schröder and later as Foreign Minister under CDU Chancellor Angela Merkel, has meanwhile admitted to making mistakes. Party leader Klingbeil has announced a foreign policy realignment of his party.
>> Read also: NATO, Bundeswehr, Minsk Agreement: The statements of the ex-Chancellor in a fact check
On Tuesday evening, in a conversation with the journalist Alexander Osang in the Berliner Ensemble, Merkel defended her course on Russia against the harsh criticism of recent months. “Well, I don’t see that I have to say now, that was wrong, and that’s why I won’t apologize,” said the former Chancellor in her first interview since she handed over official business to Scholz on December 8th.
The Ukrainian ambassador Andriy Melnyk accused Merkel of a lack of self-criticism. The ex-chancellor’s statements in the interview “about the infallibility of her course in Russia and her far too lenient treatment of dictator Putin are disconcerting,” he told the dpa news agency.
How could it be, the ambassador asked, that Russia was able to start “the bloodiest war in Europe since 1945” when German Russia policy “was so great” in recent decades. Putin was almost courted, and Berlin had always accommodated the Kremlin boss.
Merkel’s current statements are “very regrettable,” said the ambassador. “Because without an honest, comprehensive review of Germany’s Russia policy, it is not at all possible to draw the right conclusions for the future relationship with Moscow and to stop its aggression.”
More: The SPD and the war: why the chancellor isn’t tightening up his Russia policy