200 Social Democrats for Peace
Willy Brandt’s son writes to Scholz
3/31/2023 9:54 p.m
While the chancellor emphasized in his turning point speech that nothing has been the same since Russia’s attack on Ukraine, veteran SPD comrades refer to the old-school policy of détente. Willy Brandt’s son and 200 signatories write to Scholz that it is not outdated.
Former high-ranking SPD politicians and trade unionists have appealed to Chancellor Olaf Scholz to advocate for early negotiations to end the fighting in view of the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine. “With each passing day, the danger of an escalation of hostilities grows. The shadow of a nuclear war lies over Europe. But the world must not slide into a new major war,” says the appeal “Create peace!”, about which the “Frankfurter Rundschau ” reported. “We encourage the Federal Chancellor, together with France, to persuade Brazil, China, India and Indonesia in particular to mediate in order to quickly achieve a ceasefire. That would be a necessary step to end the killing and explore the possibilities for peace. Only then can the path to a common security order in Europe”, write the initiators.
The appeal was written by the historian Peter Brandt, a son of the former chancellor Willy Brandt, as well as by the former head of the German Trade Union Confederation (DGB) Reiner Hoffmann and the ex-SPD member of the Bundestag Michael Müller. According to the newspaper, ex-EU Commissioner Günter Verheugen, former Bundestag President Wolfgang Thierse and numerous former top trade unionists have also signed.
The initiators continue to write: “The peace and detente policy, to which we owe German unity and the overcoming of the European division, is not outdated. We have worked for their goals in the past and continue to do so today. To quote Willy Brandt to say: “We must stand against the tide when it tries once again to dig the wrong bed.” The authors add: “Peace can only be made on the basis of international law and only with Russia.”