“Change through rapprochement”: That was the guiding principle under which Egon Bahr played a key role in shaping Chancellor Willy Brandt’s Ostpolitik more than 50 years ago. He would have turned 100 on Friday. Chancellor Scholz pays tribute to him.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) has warned against equating Russia with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
«It was not the Russian people who made the fatal decision to invade Ukraine. This war is Putin’s war,” said Scholz on Thursday evening at an event organized by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation in honor of SPD politician Egon Bahr, who would have been 100 on Friday.
“This differentiation is important. It is important in order not to jeopardize the reconciliation between Germans and Russians after the Second World War,” emphasized Scholz. It is also important for living together with the Russians and Ukrainians in Germany. “And it’s important to show the courageous Russian men and women who are taking to the streets at great personal risk against Putin’s war of aggression one thing: you are not alone. We stand by your side.” This other Russia is the foundation for future German-Russian relations.
Bahr is considered the architect of the new Ostpolitik
The SPD politician Egon Bahr, who died in 2015, is considered the architect of Chancellor Willy Brandt’s new Ostpolitik, which resulted in treaties with the GDR, Poland and the Soviet Union. Bahr’s guiding principle was “change through rapprochement”. From 1972 to 1976 he was Federal Minister for Special Tasks and then for Economic Cooperation.
Scholz accused Putin of wanting to turn back the clocks “to a time when the great powers shared the map among themselves”. He wanted to treat the countries of Central and Eastern Europe as “mere buffers and zones of influence”.
Scholz expressed reservations about the chances of success of the ongoing efforts to end the Ukraine war. “No one knows whether Russia is only holding the talks that are now taking place in Belarus to accompany its own advance,” he said.
Nevertheless, he supported the negotiations. But you are not naive, emphasized Scholz. «Dialogue is not an end in itself. Dialogue, in this case with Russia in particular, requires your own strength, which Willy Brandt and Egon Bahr also knew, by the way. » Scholz emphasized that the highest increase in defense spending in the history of the Federal Republic of Germany occurred during her time in government.
Source: Stern
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