The Union faction leader supports the call for the establishment of a commission of inquiry to review Germany’s Russia policy.
(Photo: dpa)
Berlin The chairman of the CDU, Friedrich Merz, has made accusations against the SPD with regard to Germany’s Russia policy in recent years. If a commission of inquiry were to be set up to deal with the matter, “then it will probably reveal that the involvement of the SPD is much deeper than that which we know to this day,” said Merz on Deutschlandfunk.
The deputy chairman of the Union faction in the Bundestag, Johann Wadephul, had spoken out in favor of such a commission after the Ukrainian ambassador Andriy Melnyk had made serious allegations against Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
Melnyk had accused the German head of state of a highly questionable political proximity to Russia: “For Steinmeier, the relationship with Russia was and remains something fundamental, even sacred, no matter what happens,” Melnyk told the “Tagesspiegel”.
Merz said he “supports all demands that shed more light on this darkness”. It must be clarified why this Russia policy has been made over the many years and what kind of dependencies have arisen.
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The FDP parliamentary secretary Johannes Vogel also called for a reappraisal of the previous Russia policy. The Bundestag should “analyze how and why such a misguided and energy-politically naïve Russia policy could have been pursued by previous governments in recent years,” he told the newspaper “Neue Westfälische”.
Russia policy: Steinmeier speaks of a “bitter balance sheet”
Merz welcomed the fact that Steinmeier acknowledged misjudgments in his Russia policy, but at the same time sees a need for further clarification. “I have great respect for what Frank-Walter Steinmeier has started to do.” However, that should not be his last word, added the CDU leader. “He will have to explain that more, discuss it more intensively.”
>> Read also: All current developments in the Ukraine war in the live blog
Steinmeier said on Monday, also with a view to his time as foreign minister from 2005 to 2009 and 2013 to 2017, that responsibility for the Ukraine war rested with Russian President Vladimir Putin. “But that doesn’t mean that we don’t have to reconsider some things where we made mistakes.”
Specifically, Steinmeier admitted that his adherence to the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline was “clearly a mistake”. “We held on to bridges that Russia no longer believed in and that our partners warned us about,” he said. “We failed with the establishment of a common European house in which Russia is included.”
In the ZDF “Morgenmagazin” he repeated this assessment on Tuesday. “It’s a bitter record we’re facing,” he said. “This bitter balance also includes the misjudgment that we and I thought that even a Putin of the year 2022 would not ultimately accept the total political, economic, moral ruin of the country for his imperial dreams or his imperial madness.”
Merz left open whether former Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU), who ruled Germany for 16 years, should show similar self-criticism. “Those who are politically retired have to work this out for themselves. I’m not going to publicly ask for that,” he said.
Merkel is currently not planning any further public statements on her Russia policy. Merkel’s previous written statements in this context “are still valid. That is why there are currently no plans for a public statement by the former Chancellor,” said a spokeswoman for Merkel when asked by the dpa news agency.
In a written statement on February 25, Merkel sharply condemned the Russian attack on Ukraine and backed the efforts of her SPD successor, Olaf Scholz, to stop Putin. “This war of aggression by Russia marks a far-reaching turning point in the history of Europe after the end of the Cold War,” declared Merkel. “There is no justification whatsoever for this blatant breach of international law, I condemn it in the strongest possible terms.”
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