Exclusive
As of: 04/28/2022 5:51 p.m
The Union pushed through changes to the traffic light application for arms deliveries to Ukraine – and only then agreed. The union paper suits that ARD Capital Studio and shows that she has not achieved much.
It’s still before eight o’clock on Wednesday morning, the day before the vote in the German Bundestag on a motion on Ukraine policy. At this point there are two possible applications: one from the CDU and CSU and one from the traffic light coalition.
The Union had already signaled the day before that it could imagine submitting a joint application. But she wants changes to the traffic light application. This Wednesday morning, the Union faction leader Friedrich Merz becomes more specific. He tweeted: “If the traffic light also wants to include a vote by the Bundestag on the 100 billion program for the Bundeswehr ‘in the sense of the decision of the Federal Cabinet’ in its application for the arms deliveries, then it obviously does not attach importance to our approval of the application .”
28 change requests
At this point, Merz already knows that he will be negotiating a joint application with SPD parliamentary group leader Rolf Mützenich in the course of the day. Apparently he also knows what can realistically come out of these negotiations, because the Union actually had many more demands.
To the ARD Capital Studio the paper with the change requests from the CDU and CSU is exclusively available, in it 28 points that both parties want to reformulate, add to or delete in the traffic light application. These include banal things, such as adding Friedrich Merz and CSU regional group leader Alexander Dobrindt as applicants, but also major changes in content.
On page two, for example, the Union wants to write the hope of a Ukrainian victory in the paper. The attempt to shift borders in Europe through the use of military force should not be successful, they say. It is in Germany’s national interest for Ukraine to win this war. Apparently, such a formulation is unthinkable for the traffic light. Politicians from the SPD, FDP and Greens always emphasize that the point is that Putin doesn’t win – not necessarily that Ukraine wins.
A page later comes the Union’s attempt to specify the German arms deliveries: “Increasingly, however, other modern western weapon systems from stocks available in Germany must also be used.” The traffic light sees no need for this, the application already covers such deliveries.
On page four of the application there is a list of various things that the Bundestag should welcome. CDU and CSU want an explicit appreciation of the announced delivery of Gepard air defense tanks. Elsewhere, it should be formulated that Germany should “increasingly” deliver available stocks directly to Ukraine with regard to heavy weapons and complex systems.
Rather a success for the traffic light
In two other places, the Union wants to stipulate that the Bundeswehr budget should continue to be based on NATO’s two percent target in the future and permanently. The traffic light parties also reject this. At the end of the text, when it comes to the creation of legal immigration models for skilled workers, persecuted students, scientists or journalists, the Union apparently wants to prevent others from benefiting from such opportunities. The CDU and CSU demand that Ukrainian, Russian and Belarusian people be spoken about specifically.
In the end, none of these demands make it into the finished application. Only the sentence from Merz’s tweet is slightly changed. The wording “within the meaning of the resolution passed by the Federal Cabinet” is deleted. Instead, there is now talk of a draft law. All in all, it was more of a negotiation success for the traffic light coalition.