German Bundestag, Plenarprotokoll 20/19, 1360-1361.
Right
honorable Frau President. Right honorable ladies and gentlemen.
Russia’s
aggressive war in a neighboring country is a recall to the raw world of Realpolitik. The Ukrainian people pay
the price for the Russian rupture of international law, for the illusion of its
own leadership and for the false promises of the West.
It was a
fatal failure to entice the Ukraine into a heedless confrontation, and a
dangerous test of the breaking point, with promises of a membership in NATO and
the EU, incapable of being fulfilled. It would have been wiser to listen to
Henry Kissinger who already in 2014 correctly stated – I cite:
“…so as to survive and develop
itself, the Ukraine is allowed to be no one’s outpost.”
That a NATO
membership for the Ukraine presented a red line, the overstepping of which
Russia would not accept as in previous rounds of NATO expansion in the East,
lay clearly on the table for almost two decades.
Countless
opportunities since then were neglected to negotiate a status of secured
neutrality for the Ukraine which took into account the security interests of
all and would have made possible that the Ukraine evolve from a dispute to a bridge
between East and West. Instead, the hardliners, imprisoned in a utterly outdated
Cold War logic, stubbornly hold fast to the prospect of accession for the
Ukraine and thereby presumptuously gainsay Russia’s great power status. That is
the historical failure of the West: To insult Russia. Nothing of the culpability
of the Russian incursion is altered, yet the understanding of all origins is a
prerequisite in the search for solutions.
Germany in
its present state has nothing to offer so as to let deeds also follow words.
Sanctions, which in the end inflict more damage on one’s own citizens than on
those of which was intended, will be able to make no end of the war in the
Ukraine. They are ultimately an alibi and sanction policy, just like shining
the Ukrainian national colors on the Brandenburg Gate.
The failed
energy transition, right honorable ladies and gentlemen, has led us into a
fatal, one-sided dependency on Russian natural gas deliveries which in the
short-term, if at all, can only be redeemed at astronomical costs. Who declares
we are ready to pay a high economic price for that needs also say: It is the
population which has to pay this price. There besides are reasons that the
U.S.A. does not in this regard think of relinquishing its considerable oil
imports from Russia.
Götz Frömming (AfD): Aha!
In any case,
in terms of security policy, Germany has become a lightweight. “And the
Bundeswehr…stands there…bare”, confesses even the Inspector of the Army in rarely
arrived at candor. A ruined Army and a marginalized arms industry, that is the
inheritance of 16 years of Angela Merkel, Herr Merz!
Who shall still take us seriously when we break our economic and military backbone and, instead of with real problems, occupy ourselves with gender gaga and ideological experiments? That is gross nonsense!
We need a Bundeswehr which regains the national defense capability. That does not alone require more money but primarily a strategic change, right honorable ladies and gentlemen. And we require geopolitical moderation [Nüchternheit] instead of a feminist foreign policy.
Attitude and fine words are no substitute for Realpolitik. After this war, we will as ever still live on one continent with Russia.
The challenge of creating a European security architecture which overcomes the thinking of East-West blocs, is not off the table, but it has become more difficult. Germany here can and should play an important role as honest broker. The prerequisite is that we draw the correct consequences and again rebuild lost trust, sovereignty and freedom of action, and not merely allow ourselves to be heedlessly drawn into a war, right honorable ladies and gentlemen.
I am grateful.
[trans: tem]
