The tripartite government of Germany, and specifically its chancellor, the Social Democrat Olaf Scholz, receives recriminations from Kyiv and criticism from other countries for the delay in the delivery of heavy weapons promised to Ukraine for defense against the Russian invader. At a press conference yesterday afternoon at the Berlin Chancellery with the Association of the Foreign Press in Germany (VAP), Scholz made an effort to refute this accusation. “If you look at what the United States, France or the United Kingdom are doing, you see that they are doing exactly the same thing; we move in unison with the allies”, said the foreign minister.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine has dashed the expectations, challenges included, that the Social Democrat Scholz had on his agenda when, exactly six months ago, on December 8, 2021, he took office as the ninth chancellor of Germany. Olaf Scholz took over from the conservative Angela Merkel, convinced that her great task would be to pilot the post-pandemic economic recovery, along with other pending challenges for Europe’s leading economy: the energy transition and digitization.
But Vladimir Putin’s aggression has forced him to relocate his goals, amid criticism both at home and abroad of his perceived shaky stance in the face of Russia’s outrage in Ukraine, especially because of the reluctance and slowness in sending the promised weapons. . “We must ensure that there is no direct confrontation with NATO,” the foreign minister reiterated.
The German government once agreed to supply Kyiv with anti-tank rocket launchers, Stinger air defense missiles, Strela surface-to-air missiles, anti-tank mines, machine guns, hand grenades and ammunition. Under pressure to raise the contribution, Scholz and his men agreed to send seven self-propelled armored howitzers, 50 Gepard anti-aircraft armor and multiple launch rocket systems. Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht attributed the delay in deliveries to the fact that Ukrainian soldiers need training to handle this equipment, and that some vehicles are not ready.
At the head of the unprecedented tripartite government of social democrats, environmentalists and liberals, Chancellor Scholz and his party, the SPD, are going through a bad time that is reflected in the polls. The average of polls gives the SPD third place (21%), when in last autumn’s elections it garnered 25.7% of the vote. Now the conservative bloc CDU/CSU, which collects 28.3% (at the polls it had 24.1%) and its green partners, who have gone from 14.8% of votes in the 2021 appointment to 21.3% current.
