If Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht (SPD) set out to attract attention for the new year only through her political work and not through mishaps, then she clearly failed. The reason: a New Year’s Eve video with irritating statements about the war in Ukraine.
Lambrecht shared a video on Sunday on an Instagram account marked as private, in which she takes stock of the year 2022. Their sentences are overlaid by the whistling of New Year’s rockets and exploding firecrackers. Lambrecht says the year 2022 has presented us with “incredible challenges”. “A war is raging in the middle of Europe. And that meant a lot of special impressions for me that I was able to gain, many, many encounters with interesting and great people. For that I say a heartfelt thank you.” She also thanked the emergency services working over the New Year.
The minister earned a lot of criticism, ridicule and indignation for her speech during the New Year’s fireworks. In view of the war in Ukraine, many accuse Lambrecht of not having a good sense of the right situation. The CDU defense politician Serap Güler suggests that Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) dismiss Lambrecht.
Referring to the Ukraine war, Güler wrote on Twitter: “Every additional minute that the chancellor holds on to this minister and thus further damages the reputation of our country goes to his account.” It is no longer about the external impact of a minister, but about Germany’s perception in Europe and the world. “Who is supposed to take us so seriously?” says Güler.
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. In addition, according to many observers, she seems as if she was overwhelmed with the office and never really wanted to become defense minister.
Several questions arise when watching the Lambrecht video
In general, statements by politicians in mobile phone cameras are rarely a good idea. Tobias Hans had to find out about this in March 2022. The then Prime Minister of Saarland and CDU top candidate for the upcoming state elections posted a short video on Twitter that he had apparently taken himself in front of a gas station. In it he called the price of 2.12 euros for a liter of diesel “really crazy”. For example, Hans was criticized for suggesting a contrast between low-income earners and “hard-working people” in his video. Literally, he said: “This not only affects low earners, it really affects the many hard-working people who have to refuel, who fill up their diesel vehicles, who drive to work, who take the children to sports”. Many users thought Hans’ appearance was embarrassing, and in the state elections, using the mobile phone camera to limit fuel prices did not bring him any points – the CDU fell, the SPD won the absolute majority.
Several questions also arise when watching the Lambrecht video: Why does she seem so unprepared? Didn’t anyone watch the video before posting and point out the potential for embarrassment? And if anyone tried to stop Lambrecht from publishing, why didn’t she listen? Finally, why did she do it at all? Probably nobody would have missed a New Year’s message from the defense minister.