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Chancellor should give answers
Scholz dodges questions – several FDP members leave prematurely
05/13/2022 10:07 am
Actually, Chancellor Scholz is supposed to answer questions about his Ukraine policy in the Defense Committee. But because he apparently always answers evasively, several FDP members of the committee leave the room. Then they are dissatisfied.
A scandal broke out when Chancellor Olaf Scholz was questioned in the Defense Committee. Because the chancellor from the SPD, from their point of view, answered questions evasively, a group of committee members of the co-governing FDP left the room early. This was confirmed by several meeting participants.
The deputy committee chairman Henning Otte from the Union faction wrote on twitter: “Curious instead of constructive, the Chancellor made no concrete statement about an expected visit to Kyiv.” The FDP faction then left the special session of the Defense Committee. “Coalition peace looks different,” said CDU politician Otte.
The committee chair Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann from the FDP told ntv.de that her group was happy that the chancellor was there. “It was a good start and the chancellor has promised to continue that. You stay until the guest leaves,” she said, referring to her party colleagues.
The defense policy spokesman for the FDP parliamentary group, Marcus Faber, who left the meeting early, was dissatisfied. “Today we had the Federal Chancellor on the Defense Committee and as Free Democrats we believe that he had the opportunity to explain how we can better help Ukraine against Putin’s war of aggression. Unfortunately, he didn’t use this opportunity,” said Faber afterwards. Scholz replied verbosely, “but unfortunately not necessarily rich in content when it comes to Ukraine”.
“We have the announcement of a turning point,” continued Faber. “But what also has to come is concrete, timely support for Ukraine, and unfortunately we didn’t hear any new announcements today. We, the Free Democrats, regret that.” Faber wrote on Twitter that the Chancellor had the opportunity today to explain himself to Ukraine in the defense committee. “Unfortunately, many answers were not given. I hope that we can catch up on this.” The tweet was later deleted.
Brugger speaks of an “embarrassing action” by the FDP
Greens defense politician Agnieszka Brugger spoke of a “very embarrassing action” by the FDP MPs. For legal reasons, the Chancellor was not allowed to talk about possible planned arms deliveries, Brugger told ntv.de. However, he still tried to answer all questions. “I thought it was a very good appointment,” said Brugger. In addition to a possible EU perspective for Ukraine, the question of the delivery of heavy weapons was also discussed. Scholz confirmed that he had never ruled that out as long as the delivery was made in close cooperation with the allies.
“I haven’t seen the FDP react like this in parliament in twelve years,” said CDU politician Johann Wadephul, who is a deputy member of the defense committee. The incident was “symptomatic of the Chancellor’s weakness in leadership” and was also “symptomatic of the state of the traffic light coalition,” said Wadephul. The Chancellor is doing “too little, too late”. “The traffic light flickers on central political issues, and also on foreign and security policy,” he said. “The question: ‘Where is Olaf Scholz?’ becomes more and more urgent.”
Note: Originally, the text said that all FDP members of the committee left the room early. This was incorrect and has been corrected. Please excuse the mistake.