In the internal Left debate on how to deal with Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine emphasizes party leader Martin Schirdewanthat the party congress had a clear line in terms of content. “We reject Russia’s war of aggression, which is contrary to international law, without ifs and buts with the utmost resoluteness.”, he said on Sunday in the ARD summer interview. “And we also stand in solidarity with the Ukrainian civilian population, Ukraine, which is suffering this war of aggression. And that’s not even a topic of discussion in the party.”
Referring to a tweet by the former parliamentary group leader Sahra Wagenknecht, who had written about a “crazy war against Russia” with reference to the Greens, Schirdewan said that of course there were differences in the party. “But I would now also like to state at this point that Twitter is of course not the body in a party that makes political decisions.” When asked whether Sahra Wagenknecht’s exclusion from the party was an issue, Schirdewan said: “Why should that be an issue because of a tweet?”
Regarding the left’s demand for a collective security system including Russia as an alternative to NATO, Schirdewan raised the question of whether this is still possible at all. “I think we have to think about how peace can be secured with civil means, how we can overcome the military logic that currently dominates everything – including in Germany.” To do this, the relevant institutions would have to be strengthened. He pointed out that the United Nations, for example, recently successfully negotiated an agreement on the export of grain from Ukraine. “Diplomacy works. Diplomacy works,” he said.