2024-03-14 12:29:20
At the request of the CDU and CSU opposition, the Bundestag once again debated the delivery of Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine. In the roll-call vote on Thursday, a majority of MPs from the governing parties SPD, Greens and FDP rejected the application. But the debate revealed deep cracks in the traffic light coalition.
Numerous members of the Green Party and FDP campaigned for the delivery of the Taurus. Among the supporters is Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens), who remained silent in parliament but, unlike Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD), took part in the meeting.
690 MPs took part in the roll-call vote. 495 parliamentarians voted against the delivery, 190 were in favor, and there were five abstentions. The Union parliamentary group has 197 members. Several MPs submitted personal explanations about their voting behavior.
In the debate before the vote, Green MP Agnieszka Brugger advocated for her group to deliver the Taurus. It takes both, she said: “ammunition and the Taurus.” The defense politician painted a dramatic picture of the situation in Ukraine, saying that every Russian missile was aimed at maximum destruction. Everyone in the Bundestag is united by a longing for peace and an end to violence. The open question is how this will work “if all offers to negotiate are answered by bombs from the Kremlin?” Germany and the West run the risk of always doing too little and of lacking consistency.
France and Great Britain have long since supplied similar weapons, albeit with a shorter range. The matter was too important, Brugger told the Chancellor, that the debate about it could be ended with a “Basta”. It doesn’t help, she told the SPD, “to tell stories of peace that are obviously only supposed to last until the next election day.” Brugger, who received little applause from the SPD ranks for her speech, reminded Scholz of his oath of office, but also warned the Union not to work with “showcase motions”.
Mützenich: Thinking about how to “freeze” the war
The deputy chairman of the Union faction, Johann Wadephul, accused Scholz of saying that his hesitation in delivering heavy weapons had enabled Russia to expand its positions in such a way that it was more difficult for the Ukrainian army to retake its territory. Wadephul compared the situation to the eve of World War II. “Either we enable Ukraine to win the war, or we will lose with them.”
The SPD parliamentary group leader Rolf Mützenich complained that only in Germany was there such intense debate about a single weapon system. The reason from his point of view: “Because selfish and base motives are fueling the dispute.” The Bundestag should “concentrate on more important things”, such as the lack of deliveries from other European countries. Instead, the Union gets lost “in small-scale debates”.
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