- Scholz’s partners are pushing for him to show stronger leadership
- He has already moved to a more urgent foreign policy
- He says he shows “quite” leadership
- Younger liberals, green partners want even stronger positions
- At stake are arms supplies to Ukraine, energy supplies
April 14 (Reuters) – Frustration is growing among German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s junior coalition partners over what they say are shortcomings in his leadership of Ukraine, an internal rift that risks undermining Western unity against Russia.
After a dramatic political turn at the start of the crisis, when Scholz halted the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project with Russia days before its invasion of Ukraine and then promised a big jump in defense spending, his partners have accused him of hesitating.
“I have the impression that Mr Scholz is not aware of the serious damage he is doing to Germany’s reputation in Central Europe, in Eastern Europe, mainly throughout Europe,” Anton Hofreiter, chairman of the European Parliamentary Committee on Europe, told Reuters.
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Seven weeks after the war, the young Greens and Liberal Free Democrats (FDP) in Scholz’s coalition are upset that Berlin is not responding to Ukraine’s requests to send it more heavy weapons, amid warnings from Kyiv that Russia is stepping up a major offensive in the South and East of Ukraine. Read more
Some of Scholz’s tripartite coalition with Scholz’s left-wing Social Democratic Party (SPD) also want him to do more to reduce Germany’s energy dependence on Russia. Read more
“He finally needs to show leadership,” Hofreiter said.
Last week, Ukraine’s ambassador to Berlin accused the German government of half-hearted support for Kyiv and said his country had fallen victim to Germany’s “shameful” dependence on Russian oil and gas. He also demanded more heavy weapons. Read more
Asked by rbb24 Inforadio on Wednesday if he was showing leadership, Scholz said: “Of course … and quite a lot.”
Government sources said that, to put it mildly, the chancellor sees it as part of his role to hold together the heterogeneous coalition of his PSD, Greens and FDP, and that he is not worried about or responding to many short-term declines in popularity.
Scholz also said in a radio interview that Berlin was sending anti-tank weapons, anti-aircraft missiles and other weapons to Ukraine. He added quickly: “We will take care to avoid NATO, NATO countries and … Germany to become parties to the war.”
BALANCE ACT
Scholz must balance the pressure from the Greens, in particular, to increase arms supplies to Ukraine with some restraint in the elements of his PSD, which has long advocated rapprochement between the West and Russia before the war in Ukraine. Read more
Stressing the Greens’ firm stance, Foreign Minister Analena Burbock, a member of the Environmental Party, called for heavier weapons supplies this week, adding: “Now is not the time for apologies, but for creativity and pragmatism.”
Hofreiter went further and called for a coal and oil embargo against Russia “at a minimum.”
The European Union overcame some divisions last Friday to adopt new broad sanctions against Russia, including bans on imports of coal, wood and chemicals.
However, imports of oil and gas from Russia – the financial bailout of its military machine, critics say – remain intact for now, with Berlin resisting the move.
Germany, Europe’s largest and richest economy, receives about 25 percent of its oil and 40 percent of its gas from Russia. Russian gas accounts for 40% of the EU’s total imports of this energy source. Read more
“I am of the opinion that even a full energy embargo is possible,” said Hofreiter, who visited Ukraine this week with PSD Chairman Michael Roth and Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann of the FDP, chairs of parliamentary committees on foreign relations and defense, respectively.
Mujtaba Rahman, Europe’s managing director at Eurasia’s political risk consulting firm, expects Germany to eventually abandon oil sanctions so as to disrupt Western unity.
“The cracks are really starting to show in the coalition, but the upper and lower part of it is (that) Germany’s policy towards Russia and Ukraine is completely unstable,” he told Reuters. “With regard to oil sanctions, Berlin’s position on EU fiscal support will be forced to develop.”
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Additional reports from Reuters TV and Andreas Rinke Editing by Mark Heinrich
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