“Inappropriate and Disrespectful”
After Zelenskyj’s speech: “Most undignified moment I have ever experienced”
03/17/2022, 1:13 p.m
In an emotional speech, the Ukrainian President Zelenskyj addressed the German Bundestag. But then Bundestag President Göring-Eckardt goes straight to the agenda. The opposition finds this “unworthy”. A quarrel breaks out.
Great outrage among the opposition in the German Bundestag. “Inappropriate”, “unworthy”, “disrespectful” was the moment after the speech by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj, declared numerous MPs. What happened? The coalition of SPD, Greens and FDP had rejected a plenary debate after the Ukrainian President’s video address. A corresponding request by the Union, namely to speak about the Ukraine war in the Bundestag after Zelenskyj’s video message and to hear Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s position on it again, was only supported by the members of the Left and the AfD. The three coalition factions voted against it. With that, the proposal to follow Zelensky’s speech with a 68-minute debate was off the table.
Instead, the Deputy President of the Bundestag, Katrin Göring-Eckardt, went straight to the agenda after Zelenskyj’s emotional speech, which called on Germany to act – and first congratulated two MPs on their birthdays. “Unworthy” was the accompaniment from the ranks of the Union faction. After a procedural debate on the CDU/CSU application, the debate on compulsory vaccination followed.
Alexander Dobrindt, head of the CSU state group, subsequently explained that the seamless transition to the agenda, according to Selenskyj, was a big mistake. “The situation in the German Bundestag today after the speech was completely inappropriate,” Dobrindt told ntv, adding: “The traffic light always talks about respect and what we have experienced here after this speech is nothing other than a lack of respect for Germans Bundestag and towards the German public.” According to Dobrindt, one has a right to the situation in Ukraine being discussed in the German parliament, especially after such an “impressive performance” by the Ukrainian president.
“As arrogant as others after 16 years”
CDU foreign politician Norbert Röttgen was even clearer in his choice of words. “Today was the most undignified moment in the Bundestag that I have ever experienced,” wrote the CDU foreign politician Norbert Röttgen on Twitter. The CDU/CSU parliamentary group leader Friedrich Merz called the rejection “completely inappropriate”. The country has a right to know how Scholz “sees the situation”.
But not only the Union, also the left sharply criticized. Former Left Chairman Bernd Riexinger said the process was “embarrassing”. The Parliamentary Secretary of the Left, Jan Korte, called the coalition’s attitude “absolutely ridiculous”. It is “the minimum” that the government takes a position on the issues raised by Zelenskyj. Addressing Chancellor Olaf Scholz, he said: “You have to be careful not to be as arrogant after 100 days as others are after 16 years.” The traffic light government headed by Scholz has been in office for exactly 100 days today.
“Unworthy spectacle – the Union”
Leading politicians from the SPD, Greens and FDP defended their position against it. “We, the traffic light coalition, are convinced that the words of the Ukrainian President stand for themselves. They deserve to be taken seriously,” said Katja Mast, Parliamentary Secretary of the SPD parliamentary group. Greens parliamentary group leader Britta Haßelmann also pointed out that the Union parliamentary group had agreed to the agenda. The Union knew that no debate was planned after SElenkyj’s video message. The CDU/CSU is apparently only concerned with a “staging”. FDP parliamentary group leader Christian Dürr also accused the Union of putting on an “unworthy spectacle”.
“Mr. Scholz, tear down this wall”
In his urgent speech to the German Bundestag, Selenskyj personally appealed to Chancellor Scholz to give Ukraine more support against the Russian war of aggression. The Russian invasion has created a “kind of new wall” in Europe, Zelenskyj told MPs. Like US President Ronald Reagan once asked the then Soviet head of state Mikhail Gorbachev, he called on the chancellor: “Mr. Scholz, tear down this wall.”
The “new wall in the middle of Europe” separates freedom from lack of freedom, said Zelenskyj, who was connected via video conference. He called on Germany to remember the airlift that the Western Allies had set up during the Berlin blockade in the late 1940s. “We cannot build an airlift, because only Russian bombs fall from our sky,” Zelensky said. “Russian troops do not distinguish between civilian and military objects”. For Russia “everything is a target”.