“Thoughtful and decided”
Klingbeil defends Scholz’ Ukraine course
04/22/2022, 05:45 am
Too little, too hesitant, too many unanswered questions: Chancellor Scholz is under pressure because of his approach to arms deliveries to Ukraine. Party leader Klingbeil protects him. The ranks of those responsible for the SPD are closed, dissenting voices in the coalition are individual opinions.
SPD chairman Lars Klingbeil has defended Chancellor Olaf Scholz against the accusation that he is too hesitant about delivering arms to Ukraine. “I am very happy that we have a chancellor who thinks things through and coordinates closely with the international alliance partners,” said the SPD leader. “That’s what I expect from good leadership: No quick shots, but rather thoughtful, decisive and consistent action and not changing your mind every day or relying on nice headlines.”
Klingbeil sees the criticism from the ranks of the coalition partners Greens and FDP as individual opinions. “We work closely together in the government and in the coalition committee and stand behind the government’s decisions together. If there are individual dissenting opinions in the parties, then each party leadership has to deal with it itself,” he said. The chairmen of the committees for defense and Europe, Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann from the FDP and Anton Hofreiter from the Greens, had accused Scholz of leadership weakness on the issue of arms deliveries.
Bundeswehr stocks “largely exhausted”
Klingbeil clearly supported the Chancellor’s course, which envisages hardly any arms deliveries from the Bundeswehr’s stocks to Ukraine. “We reassess every day what we can still deliver. But the Bundeswehr has now largely exhausted its stocks,” he said. “This is also due to the fact that the Bundeswehr has been run down in recent years. As simple as some might imagine, that there are garages or warehouses somewhere in the Bundeswehr from which you can simply take the device, that’s true not.” Klingbeil pointed out that Germany instead finances deliveries of German industry to Ukraine with a lot of money and supports the provision of heavy weapons by partner countries with training and ammunition. He also urged prudence when reacting to the war in Ukraine: “We agree with our partners that we must not cross the threshold to the Third World War.”
Klingbeil was calm about the differences within the SPD on the subject of arms deliveries. “We are a people’s party with almost 400,000 members, so there are sometimes different opinions. There are also debates, these are also emotional debates. But in the end I see that those who bear responsibility in the SPD have a high degree of unity.” The leadership of the parliamentary group and party stand behind Scholz and support his line. “We see how the people in Ukraine are fighting and we stand by their side. That is the united position of those responsible in the SPD. It’s right that we help, it’s right that we use military equipment support.”
Representatives of the left wing of the party have spoken out against the delivery of heavy weapons to Ukraine. One of the strongest supporters in the SPD is the chairman of the foreign affairs committee, Michael Roth.