Mith a heated debate on Thursday, the Bundestag discussed a motion by the AfD parliamentary group for a “peace initiative” in the Russian war against Ukraine. Speakers from other parties accused the AfD of Russian propaganda and domestic political maneuvers.
The party defended its request. You have to get away from military logic, said the honorary chairman of the parliamentary group, Alexander Gauland. “No one can win this war, and peace only has a chance if we finally accept that and work for a peaceful solution.”
Representatives of the SPD, Greens, FDP, Union and Left Party sharply criticized the AfD for their motion. It says, among other things, that the EU and its member states were too weak to prevent the illegal war of aggression in their eastern neighborhood.
Trittin: “They are not for peace”
In the application, the AfD parliamentary group also calls on the federal government to launch a peace initiative with security guarantees for Ukraine and Russia. As a “first step” it is suggested that “the political, military and financial support of Ukraine should be linked to Kiev’s willingness to negotiate serious peace talks and also to demand a willingness to talk to Russia”.
The federal government should “emphatically support the dispatch of an international peace delegation led by a representative of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to Kyiv and Moscow” and agree “an immediate ceasefire” with both sides. According to the application, the aim should be a ceasefire for a period of at least 90 days, a timely disengagement of the troops involved in a strip of 30 kilometers and monitoring of the ceasefire and disengagement by the OSCE.
As components for a peace agreement, the AfD deputies proposed, among other things, the creation of mandated areas of the United Nations in the four oblasts of Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhia and Cherson. There will also be a gradual “withdrawal of Russian forces from Ukrainian territory to pre-February 24, 2022 levels, with a simultaneous gradual reduction in military support to Ukraine from EU member states, the UK and the US” and “the gradual lifting of the sanctions against the Russian Federation”.
Finally, a privileged EU partnership for Ukraine should be aimed for, “under the condition that Ukraine does not become a NATO or EU member”. In addition, no nuclear weapons, missiles or foreign troops should be stationed in the country.
The Green foreign politician Jürgen Trittin accused the AfD in the Bundestag on Thursday of completely turning the question of war guilt around. “You are not for peace, you prefer to act as propaganda dwarfs for Putin’s war propaganda,” he said. “Your so-called peace plan is a completely transparent domestic political theatre,” said CDU MP Knut Abraham.
The FDP politician Ulrich Lechte spoke of “open pandering” to a regime that was trying to intimidate neighboring countries. The CDU politician Serap Güler said that anyone who wants to end this war must oppose Putin, “because Putin is the only one who can end this war (…) by withdrawing from Ukraine immediately”.