During 13 months in office and while Germany had high ambitions for its army since the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, the now former German Minister of Defense, Christine Lambrecht, presented her resignation to Chancellor Olaf Scholz this Monday (16) in a statement sent to the press.
“The media focus on me for months hardly allows for objective reporting and discussion about the soldiers, the Bundeswehr (the German army) and security policy directions in the interest of German citizens,” he declared.
According to her, “the valuable work of soldiers and many motivated people must come first”, as Germany plans to invest the equivalent of more than R$553 billion to modernize its army, after the war in Ukraine. This resignation comes at a time when Germany is again under pressure to deliver tanks to Ukraine.
“The minister had difficulty finding her place in the world of Bundeswehr”, estimates the newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ). After the February 24 invasion, Olaf Scholz announced a “change of era” for the chronically underinvested German defense. A special fund of 100 billion euros was created to modernize the army. However, Christine Lambrecht “probably understood that she was incapable of carrying out this change”, opines the German media SZ.
The resignation comes as Berlin comes under increasing pressure to allow the delivery of German-made main battle tanks to Ukraine. Lambrecht was ridiculed for her announcement that Germany was sending 5,000 military helmets instead of larger or more important equipment.
A member of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democratic Party (SPD), the former minister was also the target of criticism when she tried to take her son on a trip in a military helicopter. But it was a video she posted on New Year’s Eve that triggered her greatest disapproval and undermined her support in political circles. In the video, Lambrecht spoke about the positive personal encounters she had during the war in Ukraine, as fireworks exploded around her in Berlin.
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