Bundestag: Taurus or not Taurus, that is the question

The Union formally suffered a defeat in the Bundestag on Thursday. Only 182 of the 676 MPs voted for their request that Germany should also deliver Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine. 480 rejected it, five abstained. So far, so expected.

Nevertheless, Friedrich Merz and his family could feel like they were victorious in the end. With a trick they managed to introduce the politicians of the traffic light coalition.

They had also submitted a motion with which they tried to accommodate the different positions in the factions on the Taurus delivery without turning too obviously against the line of Chancellor Olaf Scholz. He continues to refuse delivery of these guided missiles.

And so the traffic light application calls on the federal government to deliver “additionally required long-range weapon systems” without mentioning the term “Taurus”.

But the Union didn’t let the traffic light get away with it. Whenever a politician from the government faction spoke, a member of parliament from the CDU or CSU would take turns asking the same question: “In your opinion, does this formulation also include the delivery of Taurus systems – yes or no?”

What followed was a spectacle of evasive maneuvers in a wide variety of variations.

Taurus debate: Pistorius slims down

Of all people, Boris Pistorius, who spoke in the Bundestag in his role as Defense Minister, had the slimmest foot. “I can’t answer that,” the SPD politician evaded. It was a proposal from the parliamentary groups, but he was not a member of parliament. But: “The applicants will have thought about their part.”

His party colleague Gabriele Heinrich answered most openly: “Not necessarily,” she said: “It’s a question of interpretation.” The delivery is “continuing to be examined”.

Green Party politician Robin Wagener tried a long-winded non-answer: “I’m pleased with what we’ve achieved with this proposal.” He himself has called for Taurus to be delivered several times, as have many other Greens. Then he went on the counterattack. “They’re good at demanding a weapons system.” But this is not financially backed by the Union. The Union makes “big cheeks”, but only delivers “hot air”.

The Green Party politician Agnieszka Brugger also had a hard time with the question. “This motion represents the consensus in the coalition factions,” she evaded and then added: “You know my position.” Brugger also spoke out in favor of the Taurus delivery.

FDP politician Agnes Strack-Zimmermann had to explain herself twice. She had tried to solve the Taurus dilemma in her own way and not only agreed to the traffic light factions’ proposal, but also to that of the Union.

Strack-Zimmermann said in the Bundestag that she only did the latter for one reason: because the Union proposal explicitly called for Taurus delivery.

Strack-Zimmermann wedges against Scholz

Strack-Zimmermann called his own proposal “good,” but immediately afterwards took issue with Chancellor Olaf Scholz. His government spokesman clearly denied that the broad formulation could also mean Taurus cruise missiles. Rather, these are excluded “forcibly”.

The Duden doesn’t know this word, said Strack-Zimmermann and called on Scholz to stop the “linguistic secondary theaters of war”. “It’s not about who has the biggest biceps here,” said the controversial FDP politician, who will soon be moving to the European Parliament: “It’s all about Ukraine, which has been fighting for survival for two years.” She doesn’t want to one day be accused of “not having done the right thing at the right moment.”