« Switzerland has to process its integration with Russian oligarchy, » demands CDU politician Roderich Kiesewetter
Even under the new Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Germany is not doing enough for Ukraine, the member of the Bundestag, Member of the Bundestag, criticizes Roderich Kiesewetter. At most, the Christian Democrat has praise for the Greens. He is irritating to Switzerland.
« If Ukraine does without territory, Russia will continue »: CDU politician Kiesewetter.
Image: Marijan Murat/Keystone
Then you can hardly be satisfied with your party colleague in the Chancellery.
We MPs are not government spokesman. Of course, Merz remains behind his campaign promise and you can also address that. His current course is probably also used to calm the coalition partner SPD.
Merz has decided that they should no longer belong to the parliamentary control committee that deals with the work of the secret services. Did he want to punish her for her critical attitude?
That means you are rather lonely with your attitude in your own party?
Many silence. The Greens occupy the clearest attitude in Ukraine policy.
At least in terms of upgrading the Bundeswehr, Germany now seems to take the right way.
If it were upgrade! First of all, the equipment must be significantly improved. There is a lack of staff; Defense Minister Boris Pistorius has made it clear that he will soon need additional soldiers 50,000 to 60,000 soldiers. For this, however, the forces would have to offer reasonable working conditions: vehicles that drive, planes that fly, and weapons that have sufficient ammunition. Fortunately, Germany now wants to spend 3.5 percent of its gross domestic product for defense. In the election campaign, only the Greens asked for this, now the government has adopted this position. In addition, 1.5 percent should be for the Bundeswehr’s infrastructure.
As for the German defense budget, Trump seems to work: his threats obviously have rethinking in Berlin.
Although it would have been better to act earlier and in your own insight. Perhaps the choice of Trump would even have been prevented. The Democrats could have told their compatriots, look at the Germans do something.
Could Trump’s transatlantic relationship improve again or does it work as far as America’s avert from Europe is concerned as a catalyst?
As it once was, it will probably no longer be, especially since we experience demographic change in the USA. Those who orient themselves to Europe become older and less; New immigrants come mainly from Asia and Latin America. Europeans have to take their security into their own hands – and convey to the Americans that resources are released, which they can use to secure the sea routes in the Indopazific.
The Germans could now come into a situation in which they have to fight for their freedom. However, the reservations about all military people in the Federal Republic are probably greater than anywhere else in Europe. Can such a mentality be changed quickly?
Luckily for Europe that we do not see this mentality in the Central Eastern European countries and the Nordic countries. The threat situation is much more realistic there and the willingness to commit is greater. Germany is a typical example of a postheroic society in which few are willing to serve in security professions and accept individual hazards. Maybe this will only change if we experience something like our own September 11th – Which of course I don’t hope. Russia set fire to a container in Leipzig last year. If there had been a crash in a big city, the devastating consequences would have had. I’m afraid we are running to such an event and that will change public opinion.
The German author Ole Nymoen says he would rather live in freedom than to be dead. He may say: If you are dead, everything is over, in freedom you can still hope for an improvement in the circumstances.
Mr. Nymoen should put himself in the situation of Ukrainian citizens in the Russian -occupied areas: People there have to hand in their passports if they want to keep their apartment, their children are forced to form paramilitary training, their daughters are raped. I wish people like him that they understand the suffering for others they accept with their attitude. In the 1980s it was said: « Better dead than red. » But there is always an alternative, and that means: peace and freedom in self -determination. Mr. Nymoen disparaged me on the Internet as a war shredder; When I confronted him with it on a television program, he didn’t want to remember it anymore. I can’t take him seriously.
Is it a problem that politicians who have denied military service to tell the boys that they might have to fight soon?
No. There have always been sufficient basic military service providers in Germany. 300,000 young men served every year and a large part of the other 300,000 did a large part of the community service. Switzerland was a lot more strict; You know how refusers have been dealt with for a long time. Germany acted more tolerant, and this tolerance is damaged today.
How could the war go out in Ukraine? Will Kyiv have to do without areas so that there can be a peace conclusion?
If Ukraine does without territory, Russia will continue. The Ukrainians are also fighting for Europe: Putin calls for a deduction of the Americans and their nuclear weapons from Europe as well as the resignation of all former states of the Warsaw Pact and all former Soviet republics from NATO and EU.
But is a reconquest of Donbass or even the Crimea realistic?
It is realistic when we support Ukraine with everything that is possible. Russia wants to turn Ukraine into a puppet state like Belarus. If we allow that, Russia will not make peace. Our goal must be to restore the 1991 borders.
Do you expect Russia to attack Poland or the Baltic States in the foreseeable future? The war is already much lost for the Russians when Putin probably imagined this.
Putin’s approval values have increased through the war. Now the dissatisfaction is growing, because the Russians can no longer afford a lot. Putin has to compensate for this through success in other areas. Political scientist Carlo Masala has shown different scenarios. The Council of the Estonian border town of Narwa, where ethnic Russians mainly live, could demand connection. Putin could send green males there and show that Article 5 of NATO, i.e. the obligation to assist in the event of an attack, does not work. In Germany, masses would probably go on the street, but I am afraid that solidarity would be exhausted in words.
Does Putin’s regime have to fall so that there can be peace?
Russia has to learn at least politically: through a military or political defeat, so that it has to withdraw all troops. Moscow would then have to acknowledge the right to exist of Ukraine. We owe the Americans to the fact that Germany recognizes the right to exist, not the British and French who appealed to Poland and Czechoslovakia, appeased before the Second World War. As a result, Hitler had more time to prepare the war. Time is still a crucial factor today: The Russians know that NATO needs five to eight years to implement their ability goals. This means that the next two years are actually dangerous time.
You think Switzerland spends too little for your military. Does that mean that you expect Bern’s active participation when it comes to ensuring the security of Europe?
Neutrality does not mean not having any attitude. It means not belonging to any alliance and still being defensive. Sweden and Finland were extremely defensive. Now you have decided to give up your neutrality because you have recognized that you can best organize your security if you combine your strength with those of the others.
That should hardly be imminent in the case of Switzerland.
It lives well between northern Italy and Lake Constance. Such a situation is ideal for a defender. We Germans should hold back with criticism, because in relation to the country’s size, we didn’t do that much more for Ukraine. But that Switzerland blocks the delivery of armaments to Ukraine is irritating. I think there will also be the results of investigative journalism that show how closely the interweaving of Switzerland with organized crime and Russian and other oligarchy. Switzerland will certainly have a lot to work up. Due to her discretion, she is a playground for people with whom her neighboring countries want to have less to do.
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