Leave session early
After scandal about Scholz survey: FDP defense politician Faber renounces spokesmanship
FDP man Marcus Faber had been critical of Olaf Scholz’s appearance in front of the defense committee
© Heiko Rebsch / DPA
A scandal in the defense committee has been causing a stir since the morning. Right in the middle: Marcus Faber, defense policy spokesman for the FDP parliamentary group. Now he is resigning from his post.
After controversial statements about Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD), the FDP politician Marcus Faber is resigning from the post of defense policy spokesman for his parliamentary group. “The comments made by today’s Defense Committee were inappropriate and did not do justice to the seriousness of the situation,” Faber wrote on Twitter on Friday afternoon. “I apologize for that and I will offer my group on Tuesday, at its next meeting, to step down from my post as spokesman.”
Faber and other FDP members caused a scandal on Friday morning because they demonstratively left the room while Olaf Scholz was speaking. “He was asked a lot of questions, unfortunately many of them were not answered. That’s why we, as Free Democrats, decided shortly after 9:00 that we’re leaving the session now,” Faber said to journalists afterwards. He later added via Twitter: “Unfortunately, many answers were not given. I hope that we can catch up,” he wrote and caught sharp criticism from his own ranks.
Marcus Faber initially tried to limit the damage
The pressure within the party apparently became so great during the day that Faber initially tried to row back. He said he was “grateful to the chancellor for a constructive exchange,” he tried to save via a statement. But in the afternoon he reported again via Twitter and made his spokesman’s office available.
The deputy committee chairman Henning Otte from the Union faction commented on the incident: “Curious instead of constructive, the @Bundeskanzler does not give any specific statement about an expected visit to Kyiv,” wrote the CDU politician. “The @fdpbt then leaves the special session of the Defense Committee. Coalition peace looks different.”
The Union’s defense policy spokesman, Florian Hahn, spoke of an “incredible event”. “Obviously they were more than dissatisfied with the performance of the #Chancellor”, Hahn tweeted.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz accepted an invitation from committee chair Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann (FDP). The FDP and SPD govern together with the Greens in a traffic light coalition at federal level.
Sources: News agency DPA / Twitter