Berlin, Dusseldorf The CDU federal chairman Friedrich Merz has asked Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) for a government statement on his Russia course and arms deliveries to Ukraine in the Bundestag next week. Scholz must say how he assesses the situation and should discuss the way with the opposition, said the Union parliamentary group leader on Saturday in Düsseldorf at the central election campaign start of the NRW-CDU for the state election.
If Scholz does not do this, the Union faction has prepared its application for arms deliveries in order to bring its ideas to Parliament. “We have an overwhelmed government,” said Merz.
There is already a majority in the Bundestag with the CDU, FDP and Greens for the delivery of heavy weapons, said Merz. The CDU and CSU, as the largest opposition factions, want to vote on the application as early as next week and hope for the approval of coalition politicians from the Greens and the FDP, who have spoken out in favor of arms deliveries. “We don’t want to present the government, we want to help our country,” said Merz, also with a view to international criticism of the federal government’s Ukraine course.
Green politician Anton Hofreiter also reiterated his criticism of the Chancellor’s course. In an interview with the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung”, the chairman of the Bundestag’s Europe Committee again accused Scholz of hesitation and compared the style of the SPD chancellor to that of his predecessor, Angela Merkel (CDU).
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“Scholz is very similar to Merkel, that’s the problem,” said Hofreiter. The difference to Merkel is that “all the crises that she approached too hesitantly were slowly developing crises” – he cited the climate crisis as an example.
“We only feel the consequences of Merkel’s hesitation with a time lag. But decisions in war have to be made within days, better still within hours,” says Hofreiter. And the style of Merkel and Scholz does not fit in there.
The chairman of the Bundestag’s Europe Committee accuses Chancellor Scholz of hesitation.
(Photo: Reuters)
However, Hofreiter also criticized Merz because of the Union’s planned Bundestag application for arms deliveries. The largest opposition faction is also hoping for the approval of coalition politicians from the Greens and the FDP, who have spoken out in favor of the delivery of heavy weapons.
“I don’t think much of using such things for small-scale party-political gains,” stressed Hofreiter. If the Union really wants to ensure that heavy weapons are delivered, “then it should do everything possible to increase the pressure – and not make party-politically motivated proposals, which are always rejected by government majorities”.
Hofreiter: No danger for the traffic light
Hofreiter summed it up: “We have a chancellor who is too hesitant at the moment, and an opposition leader who does not have the interests of the whole in mind, but rather small-scale politics. Both are a problem.” According to Hofreiter, there is no danger for the red-green-yellow coalition. “I see a struggle in the coalition in an extremely difficult situation for the right actions.”
Criticism was also voiced from the FDP. The deputy FDP chairman Wolfgang Kubicki opened the federal party conference of the Liberals with an attack on the coalition partner SPD. With a view to the international criticism of Germany’s hesitant attitude when it came to supplying arms to Ukraine, he said: “The image that many representatives of the largest governing party are presenting in front of the eyes of the world public is not one that can satisfy us as a coalition partner. “
Kubicki warned: “We simply don’t have time to deal with the ideological ballast of the past.” Concrete and effective military aid for Ukraine is needed. “And some say that the decisive will to lead is also missing at the moment.”
Kubicki saw Germany as ill-equipped for the challenges of the future. “The Russian war of aggression and its consequences have relentlessly revealed that the Federal Republic has not made a number of fundamental decisions over the past decade and a half,” said the Vice President of the Bundestag. “It is now becoming apparent that Germany has sat back for too long, has been caught in a political twilight sleep for far too long.”
Criticism of the special fund
Merz sharply criticized FDP Federal Finance Minister Cristian Lindner. The Union parliamentary group also wanted the Bundeswehr to be better equipped, said Merz. The CDU and CSU are open to the 100 billion euro special fund planned by the traffic light to upgrade the Bundeswehr. But that is nothing more than 100 billion euros in new debt. He was amazed how an FDP finance minister “builds up one deficit after the other and incurs the highest debts that have ever existed in the history of the Federal Republic of Germany,” said Merz.
“I expect more from a finance minister than just opening the coffers, constantly incurring new debts and paying for every problem with money.” everything else continues as before”.
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