Scholz's stance on Taurus missiles deepens Germany's internal rift on Ukraine

Germany's Chancellor Olaf Scholz has once again ruled out the possibility of providing Ukraine with Taurus missiles, while the head of his party's parliamentary group, SPD, suggested initiating talks about "freezing" the war. Commentators have harshly criticized their stance.

On Tuesday, we could read that Germany hesitates to provide Ukraine with Taurus missiles.

In response to why Germany has still not provided Taurus missiles to Ukraine, Justyna Gotkowska, deputy director of the Centre for Eastern Studies, said there are several reasons. She pointed out that the main reason is Scholz's opposition.

The Chancellor considers the position of the influential SPD wing, which advocates for peace talks with Russia and does not want to supply Ukraine with arms that would allow it to gain a military advantage. This faction believes that such a step would exacerbate the conflict, rather than resolve it - explained on Tuesday.

"The Chancellor is becoming increasingly isolated," reads in the influential newspaper "Sueddeutsche Zeitung".

Only the SPD defends in the Bundestag the decision to refuse to provide Ukraine with Taurus cruise missiles. Olaf Scholz has not even managed to convince those with whom he governs (i.e., the liberal FDP and the Greens). The external impression is disastrous - writes the newspaper's commentator Daniel Broessler.

Referring to the refusal on Thursday by the Bundestag of a resolution proposed by the opposition party CDU/CSU, which called for the government to provide Ukraine with Taurus missiles, the commentator notes that although SPD coalition partners voted against the resolution in accordance with party discipline, they distanced themselves from the Chancellor in their parliamentary speeches.

The debate in the Bundestag brought two outcomes. Firstly, another attempt by the CDU/CSU to force the government to agree to provide the Tauruses ended in failure. Secondly, Scholz failed to convince the coalition partners of the arguments supposedly against the weapon deliveries. "As a result, we have two losers: Ukraine and Scholz" - emphasizes Broessler.

The consequences of the Bundestag's decision are considered "disastrous". The Chancellor must gradually start asking himself whether his Social Democratic defenders really support his policy towards Ukraine, or whether they have long been working towards compelling him to change course - summarized the "SZ" journalist.

The SPD group in the Bundestag does not call either the party or the Chancellor to learn from the past, but returns to the old SPD mistakes in security policy and in relations with Russia - it reads.

The head of the SDP club Muetzenich in his speech "raised a white flag of the election campaign" - writes von Altenbockum. "It's not about weapon deliveries, but about the humanitarianism shown to refugees by German institutions" – quotes Muetzenich the commentator, emphasizing that the politician "did not mention a word about how to create opportunities for refugees to return to their occupied homeland. "That would be a humanitarian gesture" - he emphasizes.

Instead, Muetzenich praised the benefits of frozen wars. Therefore, he did not want to criticize the pope and hence his advice to Ukraine to lay down arms. SPD follows the same deterrence-unpredicting path as in the times after the annexation of Crimea. It was a mistake then, and it is all the more so now - stressed von Altenbockum.