Olaf Scholz: That’s what the press writes about a government statement

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A good year after the Russian attack on Ukraine, Chancellor Olaf Scholz still sees no basis for peace negotiations. “You can’t negotiate with a gun at your temple – except about your own submission,” he made clear in a government statement in the Bundestag on Thursday. With clear words, the SPD politician rejected all those who recently demanded concessions from Ukraine. “Love of peace does not mean submission to a larger neighbor. If Ukraine stopped defending itself, then that would not be peace, it would be the end of Ukraine,” emphasized Scholz.

German media commented on the government statement as follows:

Augsburg General: “Scholz limited himself to enumerating the supposed successes of his “turning point”. He faded out the downsides. ‘We can do it’, former Chancellor Angela Merkel once exclaimed, expressing both confidence and a healthy dose of self-doubt. It would be the mood would have been beneficial in the country if Scholz had come up with a similarly concise sentence in addition to a lot of self-praise.”

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung: “Scholz was laughed at for an assertion (…): when he spoke of Germany’s growing resilience and claimed that this becomes most obvious when looking at the Bundeswehr. Not even he can believe that himself. The Bundeswehr is even ‘barer’ than before a year because it had to hand over significant amounts of tanks, anti-aircraft systems and ammunition to the Ukraine without the depots having been replenished. (…) Only a third of the ‘special fund’ has been planned. The new Germany speed, from which Scholz again spoke, is still proving to be a snail’s pace when it comes to training the Bundeswehr.”

Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung: “Many people hoped that this turning point would change something overall. That the war on our doorstep would sharpen our eyes in our own country to what is important: security, health, education. With all the help for Ukraine, with Regardless of the focus on the Bundeswehr, the government must also take care of climate change, affordable rents, good schools, healthy nutrition, the rehabilitation of hospitals, the improvement of care and the integration of migrants.”

Cologne City Gazette: “After Putin’s attack on Ukraine, Scholz kept society together with a huge financial effort by the government. Now he should take care of the cohesion of his coalition. At the turn of the century, the government should concentrate on what is important domestically: social peace .”

Leipziger Volkszeitung: “After Putin’s attack on Ukraine, Olaf Scholz laboriously kept society together with a huge financial effort by the government, now he should take care of the cohesion of his government. A turning point in time means that a coalition must concentrate on what is most important: on the social peace at home.”

Reutlinger General-Anzeiger: “Leading Bundeswehr generals can definitely be credited with more military competence than the civilians Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann and Anton Hofreiter. The experts say that the war can only end through a negotiation. That’s why von Scholz is wise not only with Selenskyj, but also to phone Putin to find out when there would be a willingness to sign a ceasefire. It was far-sighted that Scholz didn’t talk too much about being reminded only of promises that he can keep. In the end, politicians become politicians of the day not measured by their words, but by their deeds. The last word has not yet been spoken.”

World: “The Federal Chancellor made it clearer than ever that the support for the victims of Putin’s imperialist aggression is nothing less than the historical responsibility of the Federal Republic. At the same time, the thoughts of the turning point speech that were missing in the one-year balance are telling “We have to dissuade Putin from his course of war,” Scholz said in February 2022, expressing his confidence that the Western sanctions and the resistance of the Russian population would make the Kremlin give in. Neither of those things were talked about anymore , according to the embassy, ​​is no longer under illusions about Putin’s Russia.”

Sources: DPA, .