Green politician
“Scholz is very similar to Merkel, that’s the problem.”
Anton Hofreiter: “We have a chancellor who is too hesitant at the moment and an opposition leader who does not have the interests of the whole in mind”. Photo: Stefan Puchner/dpa
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He is one of the harshest critics of Chancellor Scholz in the debate about arms deliveries to Ukraine. The Green politician Anton Hofreiter again accuses the Chancellor of hesitation.
In the discussion about the delivery of heavy weapons to Ukraine, Green Party politician Anton Hofreiter reiterated his criticism of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s course.
In an interview with the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung”, the chairman of the Bundestag’s Europe Committee again accused Scholz of hesitation and compared the style of the SPD chancellor to that of his predecessor, Angela Merkel (CDU). “Scholz is very similar to Merkel, that’s the problem,” said Hofreiter.
Quick decisions needed in war
The difference to Merkel is “that all crises that she approached too hesitantly were slowly developing crises” – he cited the climate crisis as an example. “We only feel the consequences of Merkel’s hesitation with a time lag. But decisions in war have to be made within days, better still within hours,” says Hofreiter. And the style of Merkel and Scholz does not fit in there.
However, Hofreiter also criticized CDU/CSU parliamentary group leader Friedrich Merz because of the Union’s planned Bundestag application for arms deliveries. The largest opposition faction is also hoping for the approval of coalition politicians from the Greens and the FDP, who have spoken out in favor of the delivery of heavy weapons. “I don’t believe in using such things for small-scale party-political gains,” emphasized Hofreiter. If the Union really wants to achieve that heavy weapons are delivered, “then it should do everything possible to increase the pressure – and not make party-politically motivated applications that are always rejected by government majorities”.
Coalition struggles to take the right actions
Hofreiter summed it up: “We have a chancellor who is too hesitant at the moment, and an opposition leader who does not have the interests of the whole in mind, but rather small-scale politics. Both are a problem.”
According to Hofreiter, there is no danger for the red-green-yellow coalition. “I see a struggle in the coalition in an extremely difficult situation for the right actions.”