The new German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is facing his first crisis, provoked by growing criticism of his social democratic party’s closeness to Russia. And this at a time when the West is trying to close ranks on Ukraine.
“The main handicap for German foreign policy at the moment is the Chancellor’s SPD party,” asserts the weekly Der Spiegel this week.
The movement’s leadership has also called an internal meeting for Monday to try to clarify its position with regard to Moscow.
For several weeks, the Chancellor has been sending contradictory signals regarding Russian-Ukrainian tensions.
Sometimes he promises severe sanctions in Moscow in the event of an invasion of Ukraine, other times warns of the consequences they could have for Germany, which buys 55% of its gas from Russia.
The government of Olaf Scholz, in power for less than two months, has also drawn harsh criticism from Ukraine and the Baltic States for its refusal to deliver arms to Kiev, unlike the United States or the Britain.
The alternative proposal by the Minister of Defense, a Social Democrat, to send 5,000 military helmets and a field hospital instead, was greeted with sarcasm.
” Not trust “
According to Der Spiegel this weekend, the German ambassador to Washington has just sounded the alarm in a confidential message: the feeling is starting to take hold in the United States that Berlin “cannot be trusted” in the crisis with Russia, she warns, and the formula Germany “sleeps with Putin” begins to flourish.
The future of the German-Russian gas pipeline Nord Stream II, already built via the Baltic Sea but awaiting commissioning authorisation, crystallizes dissension because many see it as a tool of Germany’s geopolitical dependence on of the Kremlin.
One of the main leaders of this controversial project, which arouses the ire of Washington and the countries of Eastern Europe, is none other than the former Social Democratic Chancellor Gerhard Schröder.
However, the latter continues to defend Moscow’s positions in the crisis.
This behavior “is embarrassing and unworthy of a former chancellor,” said Saturday one of the leaders of Angela Merkel’s conservative party, Christoph Ploss, demanding that his office be removed from the Chamber of Deputies.
If he prefers “to indulge in such open lobbying in favor of the interests of the Russian state, in exchange for handsome emoluments, he should no longer take advantage of German taxpayers’ money”, he said.
The SPD’s conciliatory attitude towards Russia comes from the “Ostpolitik” promoted by Chancellor Willy Brandt in the 1970s.
It was then through commercial exchanges in particular to get closer to the communist Eastern bloc and in particular to the former East Germany, with a view to achieving a detente in the Cold War.
This strategy ultimately contributed to German reunification in 1990.
It remains deeply rooted in the social democratic, and even national, DNA: it was continued, with some adjustments, by the conservative Chancellor Angela Merkel, also often criticized for her closeness to Vladimir Putin.
Pacifism
Added to this is a pacifism strongly rooted in German opinion, steeped in guilt following the horrors of the Nazi regime.
According to a survey published this week by the Yougov Institute, 59% of the population refuses to deliver weapons to Kiev.
Problem: the software on which German diplomacy has operated for more than 40 years now seems outdated.
“The conciliatory Ostpolitik with Moscow, the difficulties in confronting military threats and in resorting to hard power” are quite simply “unsuited to the current confrontation” with Russia, judge Andreas Umland, analyst at the Swedish Institute of International Affairs.
In addition, “Nazi crimes did not only target Russia but were mainly committed in Ukraine, Poland, the Baltic States, and all these countries feel threatened today by Russia”, notes Thomas Enders, President of the think tank German Council on Foreign Relations.