In terms of arms deliveries, Germany comes a long way. Until last year, the country’s official doctrine was not to send military equipment into war zones. In January 2022, a few weeks before the invasion of Ukraine, the new German government, led for a month by Olaf Scholz, considered that it was already making a substantial gesture by sending 5,000 helmets to Ukrainian fighters.
Since then, the progress made is considerable, since, after having delivered howitzers, rocket launchers and other armaments, Berlin supplied Ukraine with a sophisticated anti-aircraft defense system, of the Iris-T type, in the autumn , before announcing, in early January, the delivery of Marder, infantry fighting vehicles.
At each of these stages, there was a lively debate, in Germany and even within the government coalition, on the fact of knowing whether to stop there or to increase arms deliveries, both qualitatively and quantitatively. Today, the debate resurfaces over the Leopard 2 battle tanks, and as in recent months, the question divides the majority, between those who, like the Greens and the liberals of the FDP, are rather in favor of sending them to Ukraine, and those who, especially in the SPD, the chancellor’s party, are on the contrary much more reserved.
Public opinion is also very divided. According to a poll conducted a few days ago for the ARD channel, 46% of those questioned were in favor of Germany delivering combat tanks to Ukraine, 43% being against.