Comment: Steinmeier with a backpack full of legacy issues

Federal President Steinmeier is sympathetic to Chancellor Scholz’s rejection of arms deliveries to Ukraine. He scoffs at “caliber experts” who want more. In doing so, he says, he makes himself vulnerable George Schwarte.

“Caliber experts” that is. These are probably the ones that the Chancellor likes to call “boys and girls” when he wants to insult the well-known or self-proclaimed military experts in this country. Because the “caliber experts” get on his nerves so much. So now the Federal President is taking on the “caliber experts”. Yes, we have a Federal President, even if some say that we haven’t heard from Joachim Gauck for a while.

But the Federal President’s name is Steinmeier and so far he hasn’t attracted attention through any lastingly memorable appearances or moving speeches. Seen this way, the head of state is causing an unusual amount of excitement all at once. Which doesn’t have to be bad per se.

First kebab skewer – then Caliber experts

First the man travels to Turkey with a kebab skewer and a chef and is beaten for a wrongly chosen symbol of the integration of Turkish immigrants in Germany. Now he has apparently crossed boundaries because he insults the military experts as “caliber experts” who, among other things, would discuss the Taurus weapons system with – according to Steinmeier – “exuberance and growing ambition.”

“Caliber experts”. Is he allowed to do that? Can a Federal President say that it is not a bad interim result for Germany if, after two and a half years of war, the majority of the German population continues to support military and economic support for Ukraine? Yes, he is basically allowed to do that. Sometimes this Federal President may even have to sharpen things up in order to be understood through the tangle of convoluted platitudes.

By the way, the fact that the well-known or self-proclaimed military experts are now all so upset doesn’t have to be a bad sign. What makes things difficult is that the Federal President’s name is Steinmeier. A long-time SPD politician with a currently dormant party membership, who attests that an SPD chancellor with a dormant pulse has done a very good job.

SPD’s Eastern policy catches up with Steinmeier

A man with foreign policy legacy in his backpack, who, as head of the Chancellery and as Foreign Minister, pursued a Russia policy that, in today’s light, even leaves Steinmeier himself perplexed and very silent. A man who was disinvited by the Ukrainian president before he was allowed to travel to Kiev. A man who inhaled the SPD’s Eastern policy for decades and later reflected on his mistakes too little for the taste of many.

“The office of Federal President is a non-partisan one, and I promise you: I will continue to do so.” Steinmeier said that at the beginning of his second term in office. So far so beautiful. It would be even better if this Federal President would explain the turning point to us fellow citizens in these times.

A turning point that the Chancellor proclaimed so courageously, but then never dared to describe the unreasonable demands that resulted from it. A Federal President does not have to explain to me why a Taurus cruise missile is or is not being delivered. That’s exactly what the alleged caliber experts are for. But a Federal President should be able and, above all, willing to explain to me the seriousness of the situation in times of change. But such a Federal President is missing.