Green tip distances itself from Hofreiter’s criticism of Scholz
Hofreiter – “We are losing our good reputation”
Arms deliveries to Ukraine are progressing little or not at all. As other NATO countries supply the country, there is likely a stalemate in Berlin. Green politician Anton Hofreiter from the Foreign Affairs Committee also criticizes this.
Greens politician Anton Hofreiter has asked Chancellor Olaf Scholz for more leadership in Ukrainian politics. His party does not share the criticism. We are “very grateful for an extremely close cooperation”, underlines the boss of the Greens Nouripour.
DThe Greens have distanced themselves from the criticisms formulated by its member of the Bundestag, Anton Hofreiter, against Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD). The president of the Europe commission had accused Scholz of a lack of leadership in the Ukrainian crisis. This is “not the line of Bündnis90/Die Grünen,” party leader Omid Nouripour said Thursday in Berlin.
The coalition is very united to meet the immense current challenges. Scholz and Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock talk to each other around the clock about the war in Ukraine. “We are very grateful for the extremely close cooperation of this federal government on this issue,” Nouripour said. The situation is too serious for partisan thinking, the government is closed.
However, Nouripour supports Baerbock’s request to now also supply heavy weapons to Ukraine, as he made clear on Monday.
Economy Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) also dismissed Hofreiter’s criticism of Scholz. On Thursday, on the sidelines of an election campaign event in Kiel, he said he expressly disagreed with Hofreiter. “A government works together. At times like these, it is extremely important that Germany does not allow itself to be divided. In this regard, he finds Hofreiter’s statement to be erroneous.
Hofreiter wants more leadership from Chancellor
Hofreiter had accused Scholz of a lack of leadership in Ukrainian politics. “The problem is with the Chancellery,” he said. The Chancellor spoke of “a turning point, but he does not implement it enough and much more leadership is needed”, Hofreiter said on the program “RTL Direkt”.
The chairman of the Bundestag’s Europe Committee warned against damage to Germany’s image: “We are currently losing a lot of respect with all our neighbours.” In discussions with other European parliamentarians, the question is currently being asked everywhere: “Where is Germany in fact?”, Hofreiter said. This is “not only a problem for the Ukrainian people”, but also “a problem for us”.
Hofreiter again demanded that Germany deliver heavy weapons to Ukraine as soon as possible. “It’s not at all easy for me to demand heavy weapons, but it’s such a brutal war of annihilation, and I’m going to say it very frankly, we now want to exert maximum pressure so that politics of the government is changing,” said the green politician. .
Hofreiter traveled to Ukraine on Tuesday with SPD foreign policy expert Michael Roth and FDP defense politician Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann. In the west of the country, the three traffic light politicians visited, among others, seriously injured Ukrainian soldiers hospitalized and met with representatives of the Ukrainian parliament.
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