“Don’t stop provoking”
Alice Schwarzer criticizes Selenskyj
05/08/2022 02:34 am
The open letter she initiated on arms deliveries made waves. Now Alice Schwarzer is criticizing the Ukrainian president, who she accuses of constant provocations. Instead, she would like “more nuanced tones”.
Alice Schwarzer would like to see more moderate tones from the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj. “I regret that Selenskyj does not stop provoking,” she told the German Press Agency in Munich on Saturday evening at the presentation of the documentary “Alice Schwarzer”. If Chancellor Olaf Scholz were to accept Zelenskyy’s invitation and travel to Kyiv on May 9, it would be an “unparalleled provocation.” On the day, Russia celebrates the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in World War II.
Schwarzer has been in the headlines for days because of an open letter she initiated to Scholz, in which she spoke out against the delivery of heavy weapons to Ukraine for fear of an escalation of the war with other intellectuals.
“I would like to see a bit more nuanced tones from Ukraine, too,” said Schwarzer, emphasizing that if you find the president’s official policy “partly questionable,” that doesn’t mean you don’t feel for the country or ignore the victims – “But on the contrary”.
“stopper knocked out of the bottle”
With the open letter in the magazine “Emma”, which was also signed by Martin Walser, Juli Zeh and Gerhard Polt, among others, the debate about the pros and cons of arms deliveries in Germany flared up. According to surveys, half of the people in Germany are critical of the delivery of heavy weapons.
“Our open letter knocked the stopper out of the bottle. That’s how the debate got off to a flying start, and that’s good. Because you have to talk about such vital issues.” Around 250,000 people have now signed the letter. “There is little in my life that has made as much sense as initiating this open letter,” Schwarzer said. However, the letter was also sharply criticized in many places.