“Mental immobility”
Historian’s fire letter stirs up the SPD
March 29, 2024, 12:16 a.m
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Five well-known historians urge the SPD to be more defensive in its Russia policy. While Chancellor Scholz presents his hesitation as prudence, several MPs are calling for an examination of the incendiary letter. SPD leader Klingbeil also sees a need for action.
The SPD member of the Bundestag and budget expert Andreas Schwarz pleaded with “Spiegel” to seriously address the criticism of the party’s Ukraine policy by five historians: “The letter should be taken seriously. We have to discuss it in the party and society “A look at the history books should serve as a reminder,” the Social Democrat told the paper. Schwarz is one of the few Social Democrats in the Bundestag who are calling for the Taurus cruise missile for Kiev. Putin is “a brutal dictator” who relies on the rights of the strongest, Schwarz continued. “The Western world should therefore approach him with unity, toughness and strength. This is the only way to get him to the negotiating table.”
Former military commissioner Hans-Peter Bartels, who is a member of the SPD Basic Values Commission, also called for the letter to be seen as a suggestion. “We have to continue the debate about our relationship with Russia,” Bartels told the magazine. But you don’t start from scratch. At the SPD party conference in December, the “smart decision” was made “that we have to organize Europe’s security from Russia – instead of, as before, together with Russia.” At the same time, Bartels warned: “But there is also old thinking in the party and some people have an intellectual immobility.” Some would not realize “that the situation is completely different than it was in Willy Brandt’s time.”
According to “Spiegel” information, SPD party leader Lars Klingbeil has already approached the authors of the incendiary letter. He wants to meet with the five historians at the end of April. The two heads of the SPD’s so-called history forum, Kristina Meyer and Bernd Rother, are also expected to take part in the event. Two of the five co-signatories – the Kiel historian Martina Winkler and her colleague Jan C. Behrends from Frankfurt (Oder) – are themselves members of this SPD institution.
Frontal attack on Scholz
On Tuesday, a letter from five renowned historians close to the SPD to the party became public, sharply criticizing the current course of the Chancellor and the party in dealing with Russia. Olaf Scholz lacks the “necessary clarity and unambiguous solidarity” when it comes to ensuring that Ukraine must not lose the war. On the question of arms deliveries, the reasons given by the Chancellor, parliamentary group and party leaders were “always arbitrary, erratic and often factually incorrect,” the letter said.
The SPD foreign expert Michael Roth recently justified his withdrawal from politics with his party’s Ukraine course. Roth, who has been chairman of the Bundestag’s Foreign Affairs Committee since 2021, spoke of a gradual process of alienation from the SPD. He said he was a passionate social democrat. “But over the last year I’ve noticed that I’m becoming more and more at odds with our meetings, that the committees and the atmosphere in them are bothering me.” He added: “When the door to the parliamentary group room opened, I had the impression that I was climbing into a refrigerator.”