Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann cannot completely avoid one question. And so the chairwoman of the defense committee stands almost at attention in front of the blue billboard with her party’s logo, the microphone firmly in hand, so as not to reveal too much. “I don’t take part in speculation of any kind,” says the 64-year-old FDP member of the Bundestag. Of course, a party friend wanted to know from her whether she was planning to take over Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht (SPD)’s impending resignation. Presumably in order not to cause even more unrest in the traffic light coalition, Strack-Zimmermann lets the more than hundred guests at the New Year’s reception of the FDP Munich-Land in Aschheim know: “We have the four ministries that we wanted. That won’t work either to change.”
Quite a few in the FDP might wish that the defense expert still gets her chance and becomes a minister. In any case, the reception she received from the liberals in Aschheim would be insufficiently described as warm: euphoric is more likely to be the case. “I’ve already heard that there is a real fan base for Ms. Strack-Zimmermann in the FDP. And they are particularly loyal among the younger people,” says Marco Deutsch, the direct candidate of the Liberals in the Munich-Munich constituency, at the beginning of the reception. Country South in the state elections in autumn. The member of the Bundestag picks up the ball: “I would be horrified if only the old bags found me good.”
There was a full house on Sunday at the New Year’s reception of the FDP Munich-Land in the Gasthof zur Post in Aschheim.
(Photo: Claus Schunk)
But then it gets serious. Strack-Zimmermann has just returned from one of the world’s crisis areas. She was with an FDP delegation in Taiwan, the democratic island state off the coast of China, which the People’s Republic regards as a breakaway province. And crises dominate the everyday life of the defense politician, who has increasingly become her party’s mouthpiece since the start of the Russian attack on Ukraine. She does not want to admit that the coalition, not least because of her, sometimes gives a conflicted picture: “We work together sensibly, but we are not married or merged. Don’t put on the narrative that the traffic light is bad. We have taken responsibility and are grateful that we can help govern in these historic times.”
“Every day counts, we don’t have time to have these discussions for so long.”
Historically, above all because of the turning point proclaimed by Olaf Scholz, which Strack-Zimmermann also likes to quote in her speech. The attitude of the liberals towards Russia is also clear in Aschheim: “We have to face this brutality. That’s why our answer can only be to support Ukraine for as long as it needs us.” And to the applause of almost everyone in the audience, she acknowledged Germany’s role in this: “Economically and humanitarianly we are at the forefront, we are the ones in Europe who support Ukraine the most.”
According to Strack-Zimmermann, Germany is also doing a lot militarily. The Marder armored personnel carrier is now being delivered, with which the Ukrainians can also go into battle. “To date, the Ukrainians have gone to the front in open vehicles.” But after Strack-Zimmermann, together with her colleague Anton Hofreiter from the Greens, with whom she was in Ukraine, is one of the most vehement advocates of heavy weapons in the war-torn country, she doesn’t let the opportunity pass in Aschheim, the pressure to Chancellor Olaf Scholz: The whole world expects Germany to take the lead, including when it comes to supporting Ukraine with Western-style battle tanks, says the Liberal. “We will continue to put pressure on the delivery of Leopard 2 main battle tanks. And I predict that it will also happen,” says Strack-Zimmermann. “What matters is what Ukraine needs. Every day counts, we don’t have time to have these discussions for so long.”
In the end, even a hardliner like Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann knows that there will have to be talks. “But only if Ukraine wants it.” In order to conduct negotiations with Putin’s Russia from a position of strength, Ukraine must win the war.