Rüdiger
Lucassen
Arms
Exports
German
Bundestag, February 21, 2019, Plenarprotokoll, 19/83, pp. 9710-9711
[Rüdiger Lucassen is an
Alternative für Deutschland Bundestag member from the western German state of
Nordrhein-Westphalen. He is a retired army colonel and here responds to a Green
Party motion on arms exports.]
Herr President. Ladies and gentlemen.
Secret agreements, to and fro. It is in the
style of this government not to bring controversial issues before the public.
The voters’ angst is great. Yet when it is about armaments cooperation between
Germany and France, the question of export regulation sits like an elephant in
the room.
Who has the say when jointly developed tanks
and combat jets are to be sold? So much was clear from the beginning: no
weapons in war zones. To this German principle, however, France does not
conform. So it is with the blind surrender of national sovereignty. As whenever
one is no longer master in one’s own house.
With the issue of arms exports, the EU
fetishists of the left-wing camp are now in a pickle.
There, one must now ponder: less nationality means more German weapons abroad.
A difficult decision, ladies and gentlemen. Not so for the AfD. We accept that
a domestic defense industry requires a certain portion of exports in order to
survive. The Bundeswehr can no longer itself account for a sufficient quantity
of armaments to be able to pay for development and production. Germany must
also sell.
The actual problem with this often affirmed
Franco-German armaments cooperation is the surrender of key national technologies and nuclear capability to the benefit of France.
We see here that the treaty signed by the
federal government with our neighbor is without exception to the disadvantage
of our own defense technology industry, which is in all things of the Mittelstand, and thereby to the
disadvantage of national security precautions. That doesn’t go with the AfD.
It is true that Germany cannot sustain a
purely national armaments program. Germany alone, for example, will no more be
able to build sixth generation combat jets. Even in cooperation with France and
Spain, we will no longer be able to keep pace in such technology. Primarily,
Europe lacks the know-how, and secondly, the development is simply not
affordable. The relevant treaty, signed last summer by the Defense Minister and
her French colleague, is not worth the paper it is written on. Yet even this
eye-wash has security policy consequences for Germany. Just a few weeks after
signing this agreement, France warned the federal government that Germany
should not replace its old Tornado combat jets with American F-35s – the best
solution for the next thirty years, as former Inspector of the Luftwaffe Karl Müllner
had repeatedly stated, but for his expertise was sent into early retirement by
the Defense Minister. Should Germany nevertheless purchase the F-35, France
will immediately terminate the common cooperation.
Karsten
Hilse (AfD): Super!
In a normal relationship, that is called
something like extortion. But so it goes with the blind surrender of national
sovereignty: one is no longer master in one’s own house.
For the Left-Green camp it is naturally not about
home industry or defense capability. They would as soon give up all that today
as tomorrow. It now dawns on them that, in the end, the French have sold
weapons to any regime in the world that is sufficiently solvent. In France
there is no export ban to Saudi Arabia on account of the murder of a
journalist. On this account the hyper-moralists of this house now find
themselves in a dilemma. That is the reason for this present session.
Perhaps I can counsel them as how to free
themselves of this awkward situation. Perhaps the problem of arms exports is
only a question of framing. How about “The Good Arms Export Law”?
The SPD definitely supports you there.
Thank you.
