Playing with fears of war?
Merz calls Scholz “extremely nervous”
March 14, 2024, 8:21 a.m
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The Union is trying again in the Bundestag to pressure the government to deliver Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine. The Chancellor vehemently rejects this. CDU politicians accuse him of fear-mongering.
Union parliamentary group leader Friedrich Merz has accused Chancellor Olaf Scholz of playing on the population’s fears of war over the issue of supplying Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine. “We have to help Ukraine more to win this war. Because things are bad for this country at the moment,” said the CDU chairman on the “RTL Direkt” program. Referring to the Chancellor’s reasons for not delivering the Taurus system to Ukraine, Merz said: “He is playing on the German population’s fears of war and at the same time declares himself to be the one who will bring them under control and keep them under control. That “It’s not all very credible.”
Merz made contradictory statements to Scholz on the subject and described the Chancellor as “highly nervous” and “thin-skinned”. Ukraine requested the missiles with a range of more than 500 kilometers from Germany last May. Scholz repeatedly refused a delivery and expressed the fear that Germany could be drawn into the war through the use of the missiles. The Union faction wants to put another motion to the vote this morning in which the Taurus delivery is supported. The motion should be voted on by roll call.
Merz emphasized that everyone is afraid of an escalation of the war in Ukraine. This is precisely why Russia needs to be shown its limits. Not helping increases the risk of war. “If Ukraine loses, we all lose. And then war comes closer,” warned Merz.
Röttgen’s alleged secret knowledge was a “pure invention” of the Chancellor
Merz contradicted Scholz’s statement that CDU foreign politician Norbert Röttgen shared secret knowledge with regard to the Taurus: “Norbert Röttgen is not on any committee that is subject to secrecy.” Röttgen assured Merz that this was a pure invention of the Chancellor. Merz: “You can’t deal with parliament like that, you can’t deal with the country like that, and you can’t deal with Ukraine like that either.”
Röttgen himself spoke in the ARD “Morgenmagazin” of scaremongering by Scholz, whose stance, according to surveys, is supported by a majority of Germans. “If your own chancellor spreads fear like this as a means and instrument of his enforcement, then this result of the surveys is no surprise to me,” said Röttgen. He raises the question of whether Germany is doing enough to end this war. “Germany isn’t doing enough.”