German chancellor Olaf Scholz has dismissed as “slanderous” claims by critics that the pro-Russian stance of his Social Democratic Party (SPD) contributed to the invasion of Ukraine and Berlin hesitancy since.
Under pressure at home and abroad to boost arms deliveries to Ukraine, Mr Scholz promised Germany would make fresh deliveries in the coming days – but said such decisions were always a difficult balancing act.
“In this situation, we need a cool head and carefully considered decisions, because our country bears responsibility for peace and security throughout Europe,” he told Der Spiegel magazine. “I am doing everything I can to prevent an escalation that would lead to a third World War. There cannot be a nuclear war.”
Three months after Mr Scholz promised a “watershed” in German defence policy, including greater military spending at home and taboo-breaking deliveries of arms to Ukraine, he said Berlin had supplied anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles and armoured vehicles.
“Many who previously categorically rejected this step are now outdoing each other with demands to deliver much more, without knowing the exact situation,” he said.
He admitted there had been delivery problems due to depleted German military stocks saying that, after years of defence cutbacks, “you can only deliver what you have”.
In hindsight, he said, Germany’s greatest mistake before Russia’s invasion was not to diversify its energy supply more and push for a more robust sanctions regime in response to Russia’s annexation of Crimea.
“The right response would have been to become more independent of Russian [energy] imports, or at least to have created the technical conditions to be able to do so at any time,” he said. “This is the real mistake that has been troubling me for a long time.”
‘Slanderous portrayals’
Pressed on the Russia record of his Social Democratic Party (SPD), Mr Scholz dismissed claims it was too friendly in the past towards Moscow as “distorted and slanderous portrayals” that had been around since the postwar era of chancellor Konrad Adenauer.
“It annoys me,” he said. “The Social Democratic Party is a party firmly anchored in the transatlantic alliance and the West, and it does not have to accept the accusations that are being made.”
Germany’s last SPD chancellor, Gerhard Schröder, backed Russia’s Nord Stream undersea pipeline before leaving office in 2005 and then becoming a Russian gas lobbyist. Other senior SPD figures have, in recent weeks, apologised for backing Nord Stream; in response to Russia’s invasion, Mr Scholz’s government has blocked the second, completed €10 billion Nord Stream pipeline from going into operation.
Mr Scholz declined to criticise his predecessors for their approach to Russia, telling Der Spiegel they “cannot be blamed for trying to create an order in Europe in which no country invades another”.
“That this did not succeed is . . . down to [Vladimir] Putin’s imperialism, which has flouted every agreement and understanding that has been reached,” he said. “Putin is the aggressor, no one else.”
With growing dissent in Mr Scholz’s three-way coalition on arms deliveries, the opposition Christian Democratic Union (CDU) has tabled a parliamentary motion for next week demanding that Germany supply Ukraine with tanks and heavy artillery.
Leftists in Mr Scholz’s SPD are opposed to such deliveries but the CDU is hoping to split the coalition by attracting support of Green and liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP) parliamentarians.
“We can deliver but many of our eastern neighbours are wondering why we haven’t so far,” said Mr Johann Wadephul, deputy CDU floor leader. “We have to clear this up in the Bundestag.”
