German Bundestag, Plenarprotokoll 19/192, pp. 24313-24314.
Herr President. Right honorable ladies and gentlemen. Dear
colleagues.
If our country had a national security council, as demanded
by the AfD, then we likely would have been spared fatalities on this scale in
the Corona crisis.
Fritz Felgentreu (SPD): Like the
U.S.A.!
A national security council would not, like the Federal
government, have tossed the comprehensive Robert Koch Institute study of 2012
into some corner in the archive, but would have converted this blueprint for combating the viral illness into a practical plan of action in agreement with
all areas of expertise.
A national security council would likely have recommended to
the Federal government what I had already demanded at the beginning of the
Corona crisis; namely, – which is what no expert doubts – the acknowledgment
that 85 percent of those infected with this illness notice either light or
indeed no symptoms, only the 15 percent seriously or very seriously ill must be
intensively treated or are threatened in life and limb. There then would have
been a national strategy to first of all professionally protect these at-risk
groups and thus avoid a total lockdown at a cost of hundreds of billions of
euros.
The same applies to a concept of the Interior Ministry from
the year 2016 under the title “Konzeption
Zivile Verteidigung”. There, the weak points in this area were minutely
exhibited. The Interior experts already warned at that time, for example, of a
blackout induced by your energy transformation – catastrophic in its effects,
and in fact on such a scale as, until now, cannot be imagined by the citizens
out there in the states.
Although the study describes in detail a comprehensive
catastrophe scenario, offers solution assessments and also says who should
implement it, nothing has happened in our states – simply because there is no
national, inter-disciplinary point of coordination at which all knowledge comes
together, resulting in the required implementation of proposed solutions. And
just as I here deplore this do-nothing government and its non-existent
strategy in regards the domestic policy challenges of past years, I see this
exact same same deficiency in our foreign policy relations. Like a little dog
staring at the snake, so now for years the Merkel cabinet stares at the rapid
political, economic and technological developments in China.
Long-term strategy? Nil, Herr colleague. Instead of looking
out for appropriate allies, in this case the United States and Russia, to be
able to ward off the immense challenges from the Middle Kingdom, we have
successfully alienated both possible strategic partners. We have on the other
hand permitted the most modern high-tech firms like KUKA to pass into Chinese
hands, and we still pay – I believe until the year 2021 – hundreds of millions
for development projects in China. You for once must explain that to the
citizens out there, ladies and gentlemen.
Every other country thinks we are crazy. On one side, we
cannot keep up with the G-5 states, and on the other side we still pay out
development money.
These examples can be pursued: How in the long-term do we
deal with an altered American world-view? Which values actually still unite us,
even with a Biden government? Achtung,
ladies and gentlemen! Where must we look for new partners, and where do the old
ties still bind as before?
How do we wish to deal with a Russia which, after centuries
of Tsardom and nearly 70 years of Soviet dictatorship, hesitantly develops in
the direction of democracy? What ignorance and what a lack of understanding to
believe that this process can be concluded within one generation! You however,
ladies and gentlemen, cannot remove Russia to South America. It will always
remain our great neighbor in the east. Who here formulates the German long-term
strategy?
Who has a durable concept of how the Ottoman, great man
dreams of Herr Erdogan are to be dealt with? Where must we restrain [in den Arm fallen] the Turkish
government when, for example, Herr Erdogan seeks to influence German policy by
means of his countrymen in Germany? Where and with whom can we regain influence
in Turkish policy?
Who in the Chancellory or in the Foreign Office has a
strategy for a peaceful solution in the Near and Middle East? Herr Kushner,
that non-diplomat from the U.S.A., has shown us how to do it. Who here in
Berlin has the concept? No one. We muddle along from one crisis to another and
think we Germans are still an important player in world events. Does this house
not notice that we have lost this role years ago, that we, by our completely
unnecessary positioning in inter-state conflicts – far from us – , have been
driven out of the classical role of mediator?
A national security council, which in terms of personnel and
concepts is in a position to plan strategies in the German interest throughout
the duration of a legislative period, is therefore long since overdue. We need
this standing and structured institution, organized and staffed, for the
inter-disciplinary development of a long view of the pressing domestic and
foreign policy questions.
Otherwise, Germany may turn into what our neighbors continue
to fear: That we, an economic giant, will politically degrade into a dwarf.
I therefore request your support for our motion [Drucksache 19/24393] and vote for a
German national security council.
I thank you, ladies and gentlemen.
[trans: tem]
