BIn a speech, President Frank-Walter Steinmeier prepared the Germans for difficult times and shattered hopes that the Russian war of aggression and the associated crises could soon come to an end. With a view to Moscow and Vladimir Putin, Steinmeier said: “In the face of evil, good will is not enough.” The Russian attack on Ukraine marks an “epoch break”, there will be an “after”, but no return to the “before”. Putin’s “imperial obsession” has reduced the previous world order to rubble. The world is on the “path to a phase of confrontation”.
In his speech entitled “Strengthening everything that unites us”, Steinmeier said in Berlin: “I believe that many of our concerns are justified. We are experiencing the deepest crisis that our reunited Germany is experiencing.” February 24th, the day of the Russian attack on Ukraine, changed everything: “The sirens and the dark smoke over Kyiv, the horrific images of this morning, they got under my skin. They marked the final, bitter failure of years of political efforts, including my efforts, to prevent this very horrific moment.”
Steinmeier recalled the past few years, which had been happy for Germany. Now begins “an epoch against the wind”. The following applies: “Yes, we probably cannot continue the success story of our country with the same frequency as in the last three decades. The essential becomes important again, and it deserves all our strength”. You might have been able to get through “in times with a tailwind” “without putting in a lot yourself. Perhaps one could afford to leave politics to others. That no longer applies today. Germany, our country, needs your will to change, needs your commitment to our community so that we can get where we want to be!” “.
“Our countries stand against each other today”
Steinmeier said it was now a matter of protecting democracy and resisting temptations. One must “strengthen everything that unites us,” said the Federal President, whose speech was announced as a “state of the nation speech”. He expressly addressed the sensitivities in the east of the country, especially in relation to Russia. He said: “I know that many people in our country feel connected to Russia and its people”. In East Germany, “there are very different, highly controversial memories of forty years of history that still have an impact today. In the East and in the West we are grateful for the miracle of reunification and do not forget that it is thanks to Mikhail Gorbachev that it remained peaceful. The fact that the Soviet troops returned home without firing a shot gave much hope for a peaceful future. I also had this hope, and it was the driving force behind my work for many years.” But that was the end of it: “If we look at the Russia of today, then there is no room for old dreams. Our countries are against each other today.”