As of: 01/16/2023 4:31 p.m
Defense Minister Lambrecht confirmed her resignation in the morning. Demands for a quick replacement are coming from the opposition and from traffic lights. Chancellor Scholz said he wanted to announce this “very quickly”.
After the resignation of Federal Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht, voices were raised both from the opposition and from traffic lights calling for a quick successor.
“A stalemate would be bad for Germany,” said FDP General Secretary Bijan Djir-Sarai. The SPD has the right to propose the post – he is sure that the party “will now use the time very intensively to propose a suitable and suitable personality,” said Djir-Sarai.
The Greens are also calling for a quick successor
The chairwoman of the defense committee, Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, also called for a speedy replacement. “I now expect the Social Democrats to name a successor as soon as possible,” said the FDP politician to the newspapers of the Funke media group.
Strack-Zimmermann named assertiveness in the ministry and “above all understanding and heart for the soldiers” as prerequisites for the office.
Similar demands came from the Greens. Because the Western allies are already meeting in the so-called Ramstein format on Friday to discuss further arms deliveries to Ukraine, Green Party leader Omid Nouripour is also insisting on a quick decision. He also called for equality between women and men in the Federal Cabinet to be maintained.
CDU wants “quick clarity and competence”
The CDU general secretary Mario Czaja criticized the television channel “Welt” that Chancellor Olaf Scholz had not made decisions earlier. “We now need clarity and competence for the Bundeswehr.” A quick successor is important, among other things, for the upcoming armaments projects and the decisions about possible tank deliveries.
CSU defense expert Florian Hahn is already making a proposal for a successor. “In the replacement, affinity with the troops, a high level of commitment and certain previous experience must play a decisive role,” wrote the CDU politician on Twitter. “Eva Högl would be suitable, for example.”
Successor still unclear
It is still unclear who will succeed Lambrecht in office. At a press conference in the afternoon, Chancellor Scholz said he already had “a clear idea” and wanted to announce a decision “very quickly”. However, he did not say exactly when that might be the case. The “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung” reported that a decision should be made on Tuesday.
The head of the defense department is in the traffic light coalition of the SPD. In addition to the military commissioner Högl, several names are traded as possible successors. Among them SPD leader Lars Klingbeil, Federal Minister of Labor Hubertus Heil and Siemtje Möller, Parliamentary State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Defence.
“Difficult to find a suitable successor”, Christoph Mestmacher, ARD Berlin, on Lambrecht’s resignation
tagesschau24 2 p.m., 16.1.2023
Thanks also to Lambrecht
After Lambrecht announced his resignation, there were also words of thanks to the outgoing Defense Minister. According to Union faction leader Johann Wadephul, her resignation is a “necessary consequence of her political actions in this office.” But he went on to write on Twitter: “You deserve our respect for taking this step and our thanks for your political work and commitment in various functions.”
Vice Chancellor and Economics Minister Robert Habeck also paid tribute to Lambrecht for her decision. “I think it’s a decision that was not easy for Mrs. Lambrecht,” said the Greens politician in Berlin. “And secondly, it shows the pressure she is under, but also how she then tries to keep harm away from the office.”
Controversial for a long time
Lambrecht had asked Scholz to be released in the morning. The SPD politician had been in office for a good 13 months, but had been controversial for a long time. Critics accused her of slow procurement for the Bundeswehr and a lack of expertise, but her public appearance was repeatedly criticized.
A photo of her son traveling in a Bundeswehr helicopter made negative headlines. Lambrecht recently caused irritation with a New Year’s message spread on Instagram, in which she spoke about the Ukraine war accompanied by New Year’s Eve fireworks.
After Federal Minister for Family Affairs Anne Spiegel, Lambrecht is the second member of the cabinet to announce his resignation in the government of Chancellor Scholz.
With her departure in April, the Green politician Spiegel had drawn the consequences of a controversial vacation in France during the flood disaster of 2021 when she was state environment minister in Rhineland-Palatinate.
“Wednesday at the latest”, Martin Schmidt, ARD Berlin, on the successor to Defense Minister Lambrecht
Tagesschau 2:00 p.m., 16.1.2023