Germany’s Scholz pressed by own coalition to provide long-range missiles for Ukraine

9 months ago 32

Pressure mounted on German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to send Taurus missiles to Ukraine as lawmakers from his governing coalition voted on Thursday (22 February) for a resolution to deliver “long-range weapon systems” to Ukraine.

While France and Britain have passed on their own long-range SCALP/Storm Shadow missiles to Ukraine, Chancellor Scholz (SPD, S&D) has mystified allies with his persistent reluctance to deliver equivalent German Taurus missiles.

Long-range weapons to strike behind enemy lines are among the most urgently needed weapons, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy emphasised at the Munich Security Conference (MSC) last weekend.

Pressure on Scholz has been building from within as well, culminating in a parliamentary resolution on Thursday calling for the delivery of missiles, instigated by the parties of Scholz’s own coalition government.

In the motion, the centre-left SPD, Greens, and the liberal FDP called on their government to deliver “additional long-range weapons systems and ammunition required to enable Ukraine to carry out targeted attacks” far behind Russia’s lines.

“Even though the chancellor is right to plea with some of our European partners, it’s not the time for self-praise, in particular for Germany,” Green MP Agnieszka Brugger told lawmakers in parliament ahead of the vote.

“It’s time for even more efforts – our motion states that clearly,” she added.

The resolution caused a stir earlier this week as it failed to name the Taurus system explicitly. As a result, Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann (FDP, Renew), the influential chair of the parliament’s defence committee, also voted for an unsuccessful counter-motion which referenced Taurus.

However, experts believe the coalition parties’ joint intention to press the chancellor explicitly on Taurus is all but certain.

“This is about Taurus, other weapon systems would not have to be referenced as they have already been delivered,” Christian Mölling, a defence expert at the DGAP think tank, told ZDF on Wednesday.

The SPD’s lead MP on foreign affairs, Nils Schmid, told Euractiv that “not all MPs” see the resolution as making reference to Taurus.

However, he stressed that “the [coalition] factions stand united behind the motion, as the voting results showed” despite Strack-Zimmermann’s rogue move.

Fellow SPD MP Frank Schwabe suspected that Strack-Zimmermann, who is also the FDP’s lead candidate for June’s European election, “uses the debate to raise her profile during the election campaign”.

Chancellor unconvinced

Still, by shying away from name-dropping the touchy subject, the coalition provided the chancellor with wiggle room to sidestep a debate, which he promptly used.

A spokesperson for Scholz told reporters on Wednesday that the chancellor supports the coalition motion but does not consider the provision of Taurus missiles a part of it.

“That is coherent with his previous position,” the spokesperson said.

German media previously reported that Scholz was opposed to delivering Taurus missiles as they would require German officers to set them up on the ground, with the necessary parliament vote on the matter making Germany effectively a party to the conflict. Other lawmakers have disputed this justification.

Defence Minister Boris Pistorius also dodged questions on Taurus in his speech in parliament on Thursday.

“The authors will have had their own intentions,” he said when asked by an opposition MP if the motion also referred to the delivery of Taurus.

Though the SPD’s Schmid noted that “there is little point in speculating what decision the chancellor will take”, coalition lawmakers hope that the signal has been heard.

Anton Hofreiter, a leading Green MP, told RND he expected that “the chancellor will implement what is written in the resolution that we passed”.

“This includes the delivery of Taurus,” he added.

[Edited by Zoran Radosavljevic]