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Status: 05/13/2022 04:33 a.m
She is the new FDP model politician in times of war: defense expert Strack-Zimmermann. While she finds support with her clear-cut style among the FDP and the Greens, her relationship with the SPD is difficult.
The FDP MP Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann – known only in specialist circles before Putin’s attack on Ukraine – probably could not have dreamed that a delegate would kneel in front of her enthusiastically with a polite curtsy, and the board member directly welcomed as “Mrs. Party Chairperson” – as recently happened at the federal party conference of the Liberals.
Of course it was meant as fun, but it’s no coincidence: the 64-year-old has undoubtedly become the clear text shooting star of traffic lights and the FDP within a very short time. She is an invited guest on political talk shows about the Ukraine war – because of the way she doesn’t mince words, even beyond the Scholz soundtrack: she vehemently represents her own opinion on Germany’s security and defense policy course. And she has. In view of the threat situation in Ukraine, she said in January that one had to think about the delivery of defensive weapons.
One could also say: Strack-Zimmermann is currently the rhetorical counter-proposal to Chancellor Olaf Scholz in the hotly debated issues surrounding the Ukraine war, especially the delivery of heavy weapons. Where he was still silent and pondering, she called for more commitment from the Germans in supporting Ukraine.
But she is not alone there. She knows her group, but also many Green MPs behind her. In mid-April, she spontaneously drove to Ukraine as a small traffic light tour group with the chairmen of the Europe Committee and the Foreign Affairs Committee – the Greens politician Anton Hofreiter and the SPD politician Michael Roth. It was not only since this trip that she advocated the delivery of heavier weapons for national defense.
The house blessing is crooked in the committee
The coalition partner SPD has divided opinions about their political style. After all, three weeks ago she invited the Federal Chancellor as a guest in her office as chairwoman of the Defense Committee, in a rather arbitrary action. However, without first informing the chairman of the Chancellor’s party in the committee – the procedure is “to put it mildly not the rule,” according to Bundestag circles.
It seemed a little as if she were summoning the chancellor, who was criticized at the time as hesitant, as if she wanted to push him on the subject of arms deliveries. SPD chairman Wolfgang Hellmich, her coalition partner and predecessor in the committee chair, reacted sharply – on the same day: “The question arises as to whether the necessary political neutrality is being given up here in favor of personal profiling.”
When Scholz appears before the committee on Friday, however, the situation will already be politically defused compared to the week of the invitation: Because a few days after the invitation, the federal government announced that the delivery of “Gepard” tanks from the stocks of the German arms industry to the Allowing Ukraine – a U-turn.
What do you expect from Scholz now?
What is Strack-Zimmermann’s goal in this committee survey? “Of course not, as some have rumored, to introduce the Chancellor – I invited him to an interview. Without wanting to anticipate the exchange: Also to find out how far the Chancellor will go in the coming months – the war in Ukraine should continue in the coming months,” she says in an interview tagesschau.de.
The relationship between the two has probably been quite cold since the beginning of the war. After all, the two obviously have very different views of the management style that is currently in demand: Scholz reported in one over Easter rbb-Interview that could be interpreted in the direction of critical MPs like Strack-Zimmermann: “It is very clear that in such a situation someone always speaks up and says: ‘I want things to go in this direction, and that is leadership.’ I have to say to some of these guys and gals: Because I don’t do what you want, that’s why I lead.”
Strack-Zimmermann has “very disciplined fight management,” say her fans – she is currently giving the FDP a profile within the traffic lights – like hardly any other FDP politician. She was also celebrated for this at the party conference in May.
Image: dpa
A short time later, Strack-Zimmermann announced in a ZDF interview, albeit without naming: “We have to lead. Not only economically, but also militarily. And for those who don’t want to take on this role, I say, then sit down possibly in the wrong place at the wrong moment.”
She dares something – for some that’s too much
“Strack-Zimmermann takes a hard look at Scholz,” read the newspaper headline. It won’t bother you. In general, she is someone who likes to share – also via the short message service Twitter. But with her fearlessness, she at least seems quite authentic – and in doing so may also satisfy a longing out in the country for such a type of politician: straight-forward, uncomfortable and argumentative.
What she is sensitive to, however, is when her integrity is questioned. For example, in the case of criticism from the anti-NATO left-wing corner, which comes across as quite simple: they are now pleading for arms deliveries to boost the armaments economy. After all, she also comes from Düsseldorf, the headquarters of the armaments group and “cheetah” manufacturer Rheinmetall – where she worked for a long time, among other things, as the first mayor. “This is really the worst!” She is outraged.
The LobbyControl association is attacking her for her honorary membership in the presidium of the “Förderkreis Deutsches Heer eV” – a lobbying association in the pre-parliamentary space that aims to exchange politics with the armaments industry on procurement issues. This is not compatible with the chairmanship of the defense committee. However, defense politicians from the CDU and SPD also sit in the presidium – and their predecessor Hellmich was also a member of the presidium.
One can assume that some in the SPD parliamentary group, but above all in the chancellery, would prefer Strack-Zimmermann to run their office a little more quietly and concentrate on the actual non-partisan moderating work of a committee chairperson – like before, that’s okay Hellmich’s times.