In his official Easter message, Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck warns against naivety in dealing with the war in Ukraine. He has some indirect information in his luggage for the coalition partner SPD.
“To freeze war” or “not to freeze” is a question that has not only been bothering the SPD for weeks, it is causing another point of friction in the coalition. How the Green leadership around Robert Habeck and Annalena Baerbock feels about the statement by SPD parliamentary group leader Rolf Mützenich was heard again and again. In his Easter message, Vice Chancellor Habeck made it clear that he doesn’t have much interest in Mützenich’s proposal.
In the video message, Habeck said literally: “As much as I understand that there is talk of freezing the war in view of the high number of victims, this position ignores the fact that only Ukrainians can decide what price they are willing to pay under what conditions they want to reach a ceasefire or end the war.” You could also say: coalition exchange via the official Easter message.
Robert Habeck: “That would be the stupidest thing we could do”
Habeck seems to have only a limited opinion of a coalition peace at Easter. In an interview with the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung” he also sent signals towards the SPD: “If we now argue about how we help and whether we should, for example, use the Taurus cruise missile “Putin can sit back and sit back. That would be the stupidest thing we could do,” said the Economics Minister.
In contrast to the FDP and the Greens, Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) rejects a Taurus delivery. Habeck’s message is clear: “We shouldn’t suspect each other of endangering the peace. The one who endangers the peace is Putin,” Habeck told “FAS”.
“Putin is switching completely to a war economy”
Habeck’s final statement in the video message also sounds like a wake-up call from the SPD. There will be no quick and peaceful end to Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, he emphasized. “We long for peace. Yes. But the honest, bitter answer is: There probably won’t be a quick, good end, even if we wish otherwise.” The only sentence that would have been more direct would probably have been “freezing is not possible”. Habeck’s position: “We have to prepare for the threat situation. Anything else would be naive.” He then again campaigned for arms deliveries: “I spoke out early on in favor of arms deliveries to Ukraine, and I am now also advocating that we continue to support them with more and additional military material,” said Habeck.
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war against Ukraine is the bloodiest that Europe has experienced since 1945. “Every day is a day of dying, and there is no end in sight. On the contrary, Putin’s Russia is completely switching to a war economy and is massively increasing weapons production.” In recent weeks there have been arguments in Germany about the type and extent of support for Ukraine, “sometimes bitter and sometimes hurtful.” With his video for Easter he wanted to try to sort through the arguments and evaluate them from his perspective. Message to the SPD included.
Sources:; “”; DPA
Source: Stern
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