Criticism of “stubborn” Scholz
Strack-Zimmermann wants to vote with Union on the Taurus issue
February 20, 2024, 12:55 p.m
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The Union is insisting on a delivery of Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine and wants to put this to a vote in the Bundestag. FDP politician Strack-Zimmermann is now announcing her vote for this motion – and is thus clearly opposing Chancellor Scholz’s line.
The FDP defense politician Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann has announced that she will vote in the Bundestag for a Union motion on Taurus deliveries to Ukraine. She also “continues to appeal to everyone to work for the delivery of Taurus,” Strack-Zimmermann told the “Bild” newspaper. With her announcement, the chairwoman of the Defense Committee is distancing herself from a proposal from the three traffic light factions, which will also be put to a vote this week.
Not everyone in the SPD still understood “that Ukraine is fighting for our peace and our freedom and our future in Europe,” said Strack-Zimmermann. According to Strack-Zimmermann, the Ampel factions are demanding in their application that weapons systems be delivered to Ukraine that “enable Ukraine to carry out targeted attacks in accordance with international law on strategically relevant targets far in the rear of the Russian aggressor” – but they name Taurus not literally.
Strack-Zimmermann emphasized that these weapon systems “for us Free Democrats can only mean Taurus cruise missiles.” Strack-Zimmermann confronted coalition partner SPD and Chancellor Olaf Scholz. “A naming failed due to the leadership of the SPD parliamentary group and the stubbornness of the Chancellery,” she said.
Röttgen criticizes “convoluted coalition formulations”
The Union also announced that it would only agree to the traffic light factions’ planned application if it also included Taurus cruise missiles. “We make it dependent on the matter and also the clarity that is reflected in the application,” said CDU foreign policy expert Norbert Röttgen RTL/ntv. “The FDP didn’t even manage to get the word Taurus into this proposal,” said Röttgen. He called the current version “convoluted coalition formulations”.
For months there have been demands from Ukraine for deliveries of Taurus cruise missiles because they have a long range of more than 500 kilometers and enormous destructive power. The Union as well as large parts of the FDP and the Greens are also urging the federal government to do so. However, Chancellor Scholz has so far rejected this, and leading SPD politicians have also warned of a further escalation of the war if the weapons were delivered.