Why five historians criticize the SPD’s Ukraine policy

The tone of the letter is clear: the SPD is “denying reality,” wrote five scientists to the party leadership with a view to Ukraine. They criticize statements by Chancellor Scholz and parliamentary group leader Mützenich.

Heinrich August Winkler is not just anyone. He is considered one of the country’s most important historians. What he is now writing together with four other Social Democratic professors as an incendiary letter to the SPD party executive and thus also to the Chancellor sounds like a reckoning regarding the SPD’s Ukraine policy: “The communication of the Chancellor, the party and the parliamentary group leaders on issues arms deliveries are rightly criticized sharply by the public.”

Arguments and justifications are therefore always “arbitrary, erratic and often factually wrong,” says the two-page letter sent to the ARD capital studio is present.

Winkler has been an SPD member for 60 years, had already warned in 2016 in the SPD party newspaper “Vorwärts” about Vladimir Putin’s desire for territorial power and, like the four others, criticized the actions and words of the Federal Chancellor with astonishing clarity: “If the Chancellor and the party leadership are red If they draw lines not for Russia, but exclusively for German politics, they will permanently weaken German security policy and play into Russia’s hands.”

“Putin sees disagreement as encouragement”

The three historians are alluding to the Chancellor’s final refusal to supply “Taurus” cruise missiles. But it is also about the Chancellor’s sharp response to French President Emmanuel Macron’s deliberate vagueness on the subject of Western ground troops for Ukraine.

Scholz had recently been clear about this: “To put it bluntly: As German Chancellor, I will not send any soldiers to Ukraine.” Any disunity and lack of coordination among allies, the professors now write, will only be seen as encouragement by Putin.

scientist miss coming to terms with Russia policy

The scientists also specifically address the debate surrounding the recent statement by SPD parliamentary group leader Rolf Mützenich. “Isn’t it time that we not only talked about how to wage a war, but also about how to freeze a war and end it later?” Mützenich asked in the Bundestag. The historians around Winkler speak of a “fatal statement” and a “short-sighted concept of peace by some comrades.”

The next point of criticism: The SPD lacks an honest examination of the mistakes of its Russia policy of the past decades. “Rather, the tradition of Egon Bahr’s foreign policy is still held up uncritically and romantically as a trademark of the SPD.” In this way, the SPD makes itself untrustworthy and vulnerable.

Joint conversation planned after Easter

At the SPD they are shocked by such vehemence from prominent historians. At the request of the party headquarters, they are in discussions and a joint discussion is planned after Easter ARD capital studios.

SPD leader Lars Klingbeil, who has just had his party’s Russia policy reviewed, recently announced again via video that it was now a matter of organizing security in Europe with Russia instead of with it.

SPD foreign politician Roth announces withdrawal

That doesn’t seem to be enough for Winkler and the other authors. They define a turning point differently: “A real turning point would require one thing above all: an understanding that Russia has been waging a hybrid war against Europe for many years and has been pursuing the plan to destroy Ukraine since the beginning of the full invasion.”

The tone of the letter is clear: the SPD, the five Social Democrats write, is “denying reality.”

The incendiary letter coincides with the announcement by SPD foreign politician Michael Roth that he will withdraw from politics after the upcoming federal election. Roth, who repeatedly pushed for more weapons for Ukraine, explained that not everyone in the SPD liked his early commitment to Ukraine. There are tensions in his party over the issue of war and peace.

The grumblings about the Social Democrats’ course on Ukraine are apparently getting louder and more public. Even though the Chancellor recently described the debate in Germany as “ridiculous” and “embarrassing”.