Friedrich Merz still looks a little tired on Tuesday morning as he sits and tells people who follow him on Twitter about his trip. The setting: an unmade bed in the sleeper compartment of a train, greenery passing by outside, plastic water bottles and folders on the table that look like work, and in the middle of it all a CDU chairman in beige chinos and a striped shirt that looks surprisingly wrinkle-free after a night in the Rail.
The message that Merz conveys in this 17 second clip want to spread: “Everything is safe, everything is fine” on the way to Kyiv. Only the eyelids hang at half past seven. It’s quite difficult, a trip to a war zone where everything is safe and good for very few.
Merz’ trip is also controversial. When the CDU announced on Sunday that its boss wanted to visit the capital of Ukraine, it didn’t take very long for SPD General Secretary Lars Klingbeil to come forward and warn against using the war for party political purposes. You didn’t have to have written a dissertation on political communication to understand that as a message to Merz.
Merz denies that the trip is intended to put pressure on the Chancellor
Because: Klingbeil’s boss and Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz has not yet been to Kyiv and, according to the latest statements, plans not to change that in the foreseeable future. Scholz told ZDF that the reason for this was Kiev’s invitation from Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, whereupon the Ukrainian ambassador Andriy Melnyk promptly called the chancellor an “offended liverwurst”.
Friedrich Merz, on the other hand, would like to be a statesman, even if, due to what he considers an unfortunate coincidence, he can only go to the war zone as opposition leader and not as chancellor. Before he set off, Merz denied that he wanted to put pressure on Scholz with his trip: the Ukrainian parliament had invited him, so he didn’t have to ask the federal government for permission.
Although it is entirely conceivable that they would slowly like to have the right to veto German politicians’ travel plans in the Chancellery. Only recently, when it came to the delivery of heavy weapons, the rather skeptical parts of the traffic light coalition had to get annoyed that MPs Michael Roth (SPD), Anton Hofreiter (Greens) and Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann (FDP) went to Kyiv to support the Ukrainian side there to agree that such heavy weapons are sensible and useful. This topic has only just come through because the skeptics gave in – and now Merz is coming around the corner.
What purpose he is pursuing with his trip to Ukraine remains unclear at first. A pure solidarity visit to fellow Ukrainian parliamentarians? In the past few weeks, a number of heads of government, the President of the European Commission, the head of the Council and the UN Secretary General have traveled to Kyiv – people with a certain freedom of action when it comes to help or mediation efforts.
Show of solidarity in devastated Irpin
But Merz, as leader of the opposition, cannot do much for the Ukrainians, especially since the worst disputes over weapons seem to have been resolved. Of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sunday newspaperg has Bundestag President Bärbel Bas (SPD) at the weekend In any case, she said she would not approve travel requests from members of parliament to Ukraine if the purpose was not clear. What did Merz say to her?
Merz arrives in Kyiv at noon, then goes to the suburb of Irpin, liberated by Russian troops, where he expresses his solidarity with the Ukrainians. According to a spokesman, Merz then surprisingly met President Volodimir Selenskyj for a good hour. He does not comment on the content of the conversation. Merz will first talk to the Chancellor about this. During the visit, there was an air raid in Kyiv in the evening, and many people went to the underground stations for protection.
Merz is also said to be planning a meeting with Kiev mayor and former boxing champion Vitali Klitschko. Perhaps that is first and foremost a signal: Merz, the strong man, at the side of a literally very strong man.