ffried. Probably no other word is used by Olaf Scholz more often on Thursday morning in the Bundestag. It is his speech on a year of turning point. The Chancellor makes it clear that he does not want to give the floor to those who oppose his government’s course and the supply of arms to Ukraine. There will be no peace agreement over the heads of the Ukrainians, says Scholz. And you won’t create peace if you shout “Never again war” and at the same time demand that all arms deliveries to Kiev be stopped.
Because we know what fate awaits the Ukrainians under Russian occupation. “Love of peace does not mean submission to a larger neighbor,” says the Chancellor. And: “If Ukraine were to stop defending itself, it would not be peace, it would be the end of Ukraine.”
The deputies of the traffic light coalition applauded at this point for a particularly long time. Because Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, according to Scholz, openly states his war goal: “to destroy Ukraine as a nation”. But with the “weapon at the temple” you can’t negotiate – “except about your own submission”. The Ukrainian Ambassador Olexii Makejev, who is listening to the Chancellor in the guest gallery, must have liked this clear statement.
Scholz is thinking about “future security promises”.
Scholz mentions that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made proposals for a “lasting, just peace” back in November. The federal government will help Ukraine to achieve such a peace. That is why they are talking to Kiev and other partners about “future security commitments” for Ukraine. The chancellor is indicating that the issue is now on the political agenda. But at the same time he emphasizes that Berlin is not wavering in its support for Kiev. “But such security commitments imperatively presuppose that Ukraine successfully defends itself in this war.”
Scholz also uses the anniversary of his big speech a year ago to praise himself and his government. There was talk of cold apartments, the threat of production downtime in entire branches of industry, a hot autumn and a cold winter. “None of this happened,” says the Chancellor, because the government acted quickly, put together “massive relief packages”, filled the gas storage tanks and put LNG terminals into operation at record speed. “We survived the winter well – even without gas from Russia,” says Scholz. And it will be the same next winter.
Scholz also makes peace offers twice in his speech to the largest opposition faction in the Bundestag, thanks “Dear Mr. Merz” and the CDU/CSU parliamentary group for supporting his course and the adoption of the special fund for the Bundeswehr. But the Union refused to applaud the chancellor at this meeting.
Friedrich Merz, the chairman of the Union faction, sounds in the first part of his speech as if he were the vice chancellor. He hands out against the AfD and the Left Party, who agree in their rejection of the government course. He accuses them of “confusing perpetrators and victims” and “not by accident, but intentionally”. The left-wing politician Sahra Wagenknecht, who wrote the so-called “Manifesto for Peace” together with Alice Schwarzer, recently spoke on television about the fact that there are always rapes on both sides in war.
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