A lot of criticism after Lambrecht’s firecracker speech – the federal government does not want to comment on the video
Defense Minister causes irritation with video
Secretary of Defense Christine Lambrecht records a New Year’s speech for her Instagram account. There is massive criticism for this. At a Berlin intersection, Lambrecht commented on the Ukraine war and the “many, many encounters with interesting, great people.”
A New Year’s speech about the war and “many encounters with interesting, great people”: A video by Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht from New Year’s Eve evokes malicious reactions. The federal government does not want to rate the recording.
DThe federal government does not want to comment on the annual balance sheet taken by Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht (SPD) in the midst of the Berlin New Year’s Eve fireworks. “I don’t see any reason to evaluate this now,” said deputy government spokeswoman Christiane Hoffmann on Monday in Berlin after the video with statements about the Ukraine war had been publicly criticized as embarrassing and inappropriate.
A Defense Department spokesman said the video was privately recorded and did not use Department resources. When asked if filming was an appropriate way to welcome the New Year given the war in Ukraine, he said: “The Minister’s words in the video speak for themselves. It is not for me to comment on that.”
Lambrecht’s bizarre firecracker speech
Why is? Lambrecht’s video appeared on her personal Instagram channel, which is verified with a blue tick, has almost 17,000 followers and on which Lambrecht also reports on her work in parallel with the Ministry of Defense account. “Here privately” says her Instagram page. But can a Federal Minister of Defense only speak “privately” into a camera?
The video was apparently recorded at the Frankfurter Tor in the Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg district of Berlin, on the sidewalk. Firecrackers and New Year’s rockets not only drown out the street noise, the minister’s speech can only be understood with difficulty. A microphone was obviously not plugged into her or it is not working.
The firecrackers dominate the clip in which the Minister of Defense speaks briefly about the war: “A war is raging in the middle of Europe”. Then she continues: “There were a lot of special impressions that I was able to gain from this. Many, many encounters with interesting, great people. I would like to say a heartfelt thank you for that.”
“What an embarrassment, what a miscast”
Many German and international politicians, journalists and experts reacted to the minister’s appearance. The criticism grew especially on New Year’s Eve, when the video went viral on Twitter. The security expert Ulrike Franke from the think tank European Council on Foreign Relations wrote that it was unbearable that she didn’t hit the mark. There is war in Europe and Lambrecht says that she has met great people. “Have they lost their minds in Berlin?”
Florian Hahn, spokesman for defense policy for the Union faction, responded on Twitter: “This video speaks for itself. What an embarrassment, what a miscast. The Bundeswehr deserves better!”
The CDU politician Armin Laschet, who knows from his own experience about the devastating effect of clumsy video recordings, referred to the formulation of the security expert Franke in a tweet: “Have they lost their mind in Berlin?”, He repeated and continued: “Is Does the Federal Chancellor really care nothing about the impact of Germany in Europe and the world?”.
CDU defense politician Serap Güler indirectly called for Lambrecht’s dismissal: “She has already proven with her “5000 helmets” number that she has no sense of correct communication. The speech about the war with New Year’s Eve firecrackers in the background only tops off her series of embarrassments. Therefore: Every additional minute in which the Federal Chancellor still holds on to this minister and thus further damages the reputation of our country goes to his account.”
The deputy chairman of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group, Johann Wadephul, sees the video as evidence of Lambrecht’s unsuitability. “The video clearly shows again that she is the wrong person in this central office – and that in these times of war in Europe,” he told the “RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland”. “She finds no attitude to the office and the tasks associated with it. The video also showed that Lambrecht also has no feeling for the situation as a whole and how something like this affects the soldiers in action.”
The chairwoman of the defense committee, Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann (FDP), said on Monday: “The New Year’s video in question is a matter for the minister and her communications staff. I personally find the setting a bit unfortunate. I do not want to say more.”
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