Federal Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht is apparently about to resign. This was confirmed by the environment of the minister of the SZ. As a result, she plans to resign from office next week. It is said that you have already spoken to the Chancellor. previously had the picturenewspaper reported about it. It would be the second resignation in Olaf Scholz’s cabinet after Family Minister Anne Spiegel left in April 2022.
Lambrecht had recently been sharply criticized for a New Year’s message spread on Instagram. In it she took stock of the year 2022, which was marked by the war in Ukraine, her words were repeatedly lost in the whistling of New Year’s Eve rockets and exploding firecrackers.
The coalition of CSU and CDU in the opposition then called on Chancellor Scholz (SPD) to immediately dismiss the defense minister. When asked whether the Defense Minister continued to enjoy the Chancellor’s unconditional trust, Deputy Government Spokesman Wolfgang Büchner later said: “Yes, of course.” He reiterated: “The Chancellor works well and trustingly with all of his cabinet colleagues. And of course that also applies to the minister I spoke to.”
The New Year’s video is one of a number of mishaps by the SPD minister. So Lambrecht had her son fly to the flight readiness helicopter on vacation together. Although he paid for the trip out of his own pocket, the public impact was devastating. She was also spotted in a nail salon in Ukraine shortly after the outbreak of war, which was interpreted as a lack of sensitivity to the seriousness of the situation.
Lambrecht was strangers to the office
According to many observers, Lambrecht seemed overwhelmed by the position and never really wanted to become defense minister. She is said to have confessed several times that she did not know the ranks in the Bundeswehr. At the beginning of Russia’s war against Ukraine, when asked about military aid, she said that Germany would deliver 5,000 helmets to Kyiv.
At noon Lambrecht was still at the meeting of the SPD parliamentary group in the Bundestag, while the members of the Bundestag set out for a group picture, she sat on the sidelines with a confidant and consulted. Nobody in the SPD had dared to openly revolt, but several members of parliament expressed their astonishment at the series of mistakes, many in the party see their reputation so damaged that they no longer have the authority to implement the turning point projects in the Bundeswehr.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) said at her presentation a good year ago: “She will be a very, very important defense minister in the Federal Republic of Germany.” In December he said in an interview with the Süddeutsche Zeitungshe is a “first-rate Secretary of Defense”.
Names of possible successors are circulating
A recent poll showed that a majority of Germans rejected Lambrecht as defense minister. In the representative survey conducted by the opinion research institute Civey, 77 percent of those questioned spoke in favor of the news portal t-online for her dismissal. 13 percent believed that the minister should remain in office. 10 percent said they were undecided. 5000 people were interviewed for the survey, the statistical error for the overall results is 2.5 percent.
For a few weeks now, Parliamentary Defense Secretary Siemtje Möller and Parliamentary Defense Secretary, Eva Högl, have been discussed as possible successors to Lambrecht. Since the cabinet should be made up of equal numbers of women and men, only one woman can be considered as the successor – unless there is to be a major reshuffle of the cabinet.
At the end of January or beginning of February, the decision will also be made as to whether Interior Minister Nancy Faeser should become the SPD’s top candidate for the state elections in Hesse, but in that case she could also remain Minister until the elections in autumn.