Thursday, September 02, 2021
Afghanistan discussion at Lanz
“A sloppy Bundestag mandate”
By Marko Schlichting
In the Markus Lanz program on ZDF, the guests once again dealt with the situation in Afghanistan. In addition, left parliamentary group leader Bartsch tried to explain the voting behavior of his party on the Afghanistan mandate of the Bundeswehr in the last Bundestag debate – and generated perplexity among the talk guests.
Markus Lanz switched to election campaign mode on ZDF. For this he had invited two exciting protagonists on Wednesday evening with the left parliamentary group leader Dietmar Bartsch and the Greens federal manager Michael Kellner. The two also discussed a possible government participation of the left after the federal election.
For the Green Michael Kellner, of course, his own party is in the foreground. He knows that the Green Chancellor candidate Annalena Baerbock is currently in third place among voters. But he is certain: “We still have three and a half weeks. Everything is still in place.” Compared with the other two candidates, he sees a clear advantage for Baerbock: “It stands for renewal and not for meaningless continuation like the other two.” Kellner sees an end to the popular parties. After all, a candidate with 20 percent of the vote could become chancellor in the coming legislative period. “Three parties are fighting for the lead. We’re in. We’ve never had that before,” he says happily. Kellner calls for a different policy: the fight against the climate crisis, a changed transport policy and the expansion of the digital infrastructure – these are just three of the issues that the Greens want to tackle. “This requires an end to the grand coalition.”
“You have put yourself on the sidelines”
Kellner does not want to comment on a red-green-red government alliance. “That must be decided by the voters,” he says. Left parliamentary group leader Bartsch is more specific: For him, a coalition with the SPD and the Greens is quite conceivable. In any case, a government without the participation of the CDU is important: “This politically neglected party has to get out of the government.”
The problem for such a coalition could be the foreign policy demanded by the left. Example: Most MPs abstained in the last Bundestag vote on an extension of the Bundeswehr mandate for Afghanistan. Michael Kellner from the Greens explains: “It is necessary to support the people who have helped us and to get them out of Afghanistan. We said clearly, we support that. And we did not understand why you abstained. With that you have put yourself on the sidelines. ”
The left parliamentary group leader tried to explain: Of course you wanted to help the people. In the case of the mandate, which should last until September 30, there was never any mention of the evacuation of the local staff, claims Bartsch. The text of the vote had only been presented one day before the debate. And: “Nobody wanted someone not to be saved. But I did not agree because the mandate was a sloppy mandate.”
Reacts too late
The Afghan lawyer and construction worker Homaira Hakimi was disappointed with the federal government. The government reacted too late, she says. The people in Afghanistan who have worked for foreign governments must be helped immediately. “For the Taliban, these are collaborators,” she explains.
Hakimi fled Afghanistan with her parents. Today she lives in Bremen. She returned to Afghanistan ten years ago to do eight years of reconstruction work. “At that time there was a spirit of optimism there. I would never have expected that,” she describes the situation. Women were allowed to study, they were members of parliament, ambassadors, and even ministers. That all changed in 2016. The government became corrupt, and many of the ministers at the time now lived in the West, in Dubai, Ankara or the USA. “These people became rich through our tax money,” says Hakimi.
She describes the current situation in Afghanistan with a picture: “There is a country that has learned to walk. Now it is forbidden to walk. It is only allowed to crawl.” Hakimi has three wishes for the near future: “First we have to get the people at risk out of Afghanistan as quickly as possible. Then we have to explain how the government in Afghanistan failed. But above all we have to enter into a dialogue with the Taliban. “
.