Wednesday, May 4, 2022

Beatrix von Storch, April 27, 2022, Abortion Advertisement

German Bundestag, Plenarprotokoll 20/30, pp. 2691-2692.

Frau President. Ladies and gentlemen.

With sunglasses, disco music and bobbing heads, celebrating in joyful anticipation the abolition of the ban on advertisement for abortion – §219a of the penal code: We all have seen the video of shame of FDP colleague Lütke and the freely turning democrats.

Freedom for the FDP – before all, for the young colleagues – is freedom from values, from ties and from responsibility. No wonder that the FDP Justice Minister Buschmann now manages the abolition of the advertising ban. Yet he spoke a falsehood: That §219a must go because of a lack of information on abortion doctors is objectively false.

The counseling offices for the legally prescribed pregnancy conflict consultations are the places where women are counseled and receive information. The board of abortion doctors maintains a list with 74 pages, last updated on April 5, 2022, to be found with three clicks via Google.

And you make vapid the entire debate by the willful mingling of information and advertisement. Information is sought, advertisement is offered. Who ascertains the possibilities of an abortion receives information about which he inquires. If the doctor offers abortions on his website, that is advertising. And even that is according to current law no longer forbidden. Information is thus by no means lacking. Robin Alexander of the Welt is right. He says: This reason is only pretended.

As to the Ampel, it’s about something quite different. Thanks to colleague Jessica Rosenthal of the SPD, I cite:           

            It is time that #219a is finally history. Yet it is also clear #218 must follow.

It is thus about salami tactics, detail steps – yet the direction is clear. The Ampel does not want to restrict but to do away with the dignity and the right to life of unborn children. No ban on abortion advertisement, then no consultation obligation and then in conclusion no more Fristenlösung [loosening abortion ban during first three months]. A moral tabula rasa, abortion up to the ninth month as demanded by the Jusos.

Leni Breymaier (SPD): That is dumb nonsense!

The Basic Law alone stands in the way of this moral dam break – and the Federal Constitutional Court. The Federal Constitutional Court says:

Where human life exists, to it belongs human dignity. To human life also                 belongs the unborn life.

And further the Constitutional Court:

The right to life of the unborn is the elementary and inalienable right                        which proceeds from the dignity of human beings.

Thus is abortion always a wrong [Unrecht] and remains so. Only under narrowly specified conditions is it held to be non-culpable. That is the core of our motion [Drucksache 20/1505]: The consultation as a prerequisite for the non-culpability of an abortion must ensue with the aim of defending the unborn life.

Does it do that? Or is it decaying into a formality without the conviction that it is about the decision of life and death? The contract of the Ampel coalition foresees a commission which shall unwind [abwickeln] the existing abortion law. That is irreconcilable with the decision of the Federal Constitutional Court and counter to the Basic Law.

            Leni Breymaier (SPD): That is not at all right!

Our motion wants to implement the guidelines of the Federal Constitutional Court’s decision. It holds: There is a lack of information – yet not concerning abortion or abortion doctors, but concerning the dignity of unborn life and the right of the unborn to be born. The Federal Constitutional Court clearly said: The state is obligated to uphold and animate in common consciousness the unborn life’s legal claim to protection [Der Staat ist verpflichtet, den rechtlichen Schutzanspruch des ungeborenen Lebens im allgemeinen Bewusstsein zu halten und zu beleben.

There was an attempt to fulfill this order. Federal Family Minister Rita Süssmuth – long ago – published this brochure: “The Life Before Birth”. Thus, not the clump before birth, but the life before birth.

In 1974, Willy Brandt left the hall prior to the vote on the Fristenlösung. Willy Brandt was opposed to abortion because he was a child born out of wedlock and because he knew: Had his mother thought like you today think, Willy Brandt would not have been born.

Many thanks.

            Tanja Machalet (SPD): Shame on you!

            Marianne Schieder (SPD): That is a shamelessness!

 

[trans: tem]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tuesday, May 3, 2022

Peter Boehringer, April 27, 2022, Bundeswehr Special Fund

German Bundestag, Plenarprotokoll 30/27, p. 2669.

Frau President.

We deliberate today on a ticklish draft law which indeed in its material aspect – loosening the very long-term investment status of the Bundeswehr – is worthy of welcome – we support this aim – yet which in terms of fiscal and constitutional legality is dubious.

To begin with: We are fundamentally opposed to special funds because they impair the Bundestag’s regularly transparent decision-making over the budget.

            Wolfgang Hellmich (SPD): Nonsense!

And now even a hedge [Absicherung] on an amendment of the Basic Law – without precedent! This special fund thus will stand not only – cite, the Finance Minister – “in addition to the debt brake”, but in the last instance in addition to the budget.

The Constitution is misused when a concrete budget figure is written into the Basic Law, and thus without an emergency is established an illegitimate accessory budget. Something like this is not done, in complete disregard to the goal of the orderly armament of the Bundeswehr, which the AfD quite alone for years demands.

Of all things, a leftist government wants to do something here which we last saw 130 years ago: Under Bismarck, the military budget was written out for years, the so-called seven year system. Of all things, the Ampel wants in a similar way to restrict the democratic control.

            Wolfgang Hellmich (SPD): Also false!

I do not say “abolish”, I say “restrict”.

The 100 billion of Bundeswehr means is regularly due to be put into the core budget without introduction of a special fund. And yet there simply is no question: The majority for this investment, as we demand for years, would be secured here in house without a problem. For that, there was for years an 80 percent majority and agreement here in house; it required no amendment of the Basic Law.

So let us be honest: This construction serves exclusively for the avoidance of the debt brake. The special fund even receives its own borrowing potential, without fixed terms of amortization – in cases, not yet – and without a charge on the constitutional debt limit. Its only about that; for that was this construction selected.

Since 2020, the government ever again as an exception sets aside the debt brake and alienates the means. This is permanent law-breaking which however anyway disturbs no one other than the AfD.

And again today an alienation of means is laid out; since this is allowed according to the draft law by the name of “Bundeswehr Special Fund Act”; unfortunately, not only for the benefit of the Bundeswehr, but it will also be expended  for the armament of not closely defined partner states, §2. All of this is superfluous and non-transparent. Increasingly, the core budget reflects only a part of the reality.

The socialists and redistributionists here in house will welcome this; since naturally it is much more simple to govern with hidden and out-sourced debts. You already do this with the climate fund, with the ESM and the EU debts programs. Yet this is fatal for a higher inflation on account of the causal chain of more ECB debt monetization; we already have an asozial 7 percent increase of expenses.

The weapons then at the earliest in summer – at the earliest, rather in autumn or next year or the year after next – which will be financed from the special fund will not influence the outcome of the Ukraine war. The Ukraine war in fact serves as an occasion for a course change in regards the equipment of the Bundeswehr, neglected for years; the necessity for that is nonetheless of long-standing and is no consequence of the Ukraine war, not at all.  

Who asserts something other and yet plainly makes a case for Ukraine – and that has, ja, plainly already amply happened here – is not only fiscally false. Frau Minister Lambrecht and Herr Dobrindt, according to press reports, you have agreed on the delivery of heavy weapons; all of that goes quite without a special fund. It went without a special fund. Not only are you wrong in fiscal terms, but then you shall also declare the renunciation of a decades-old German state doctrine to deliver no weapons to a war zone. Yet that would then be for Germany not only a fiscally false but at the same time a highly dangerous way.  

Hearty thanks.

            Wolfgang Hellmich (SPD): No idea and a lot of it!

 

[trans: tem]

 

           

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Monday, May 2, 2022

Tino Chrupalla, April 28, 2022, Ukraine and Weapons

German Bundestag, Plenarprotokoll 20/31, pp. 2725-2726.

Frau President. Right honorable ladies and gentlemen. Dear countrymen.

It has been over two months now since Russia attacked the Ukraine. We again have war in Europe. At the beginning, all of us here in this sovereign house hoped the conflict quickly ended, and that the population in the Ukraine can again live in peace. Unfortunately, it is otherwise. The AfD delegation remembers all the war dead and mourns with their bereaved.

The new war in Europe places before us a difficult situation and decision. Suddenly, old wounds are opened up and overcome thought patterns are employed. Yet certainly for a peaceful living together, we need to remove the ideological blinkers and we ourselves discuss in our own country. I find it to be inexcusable that Chancellor Olaf Scholz today is not present on so important a day. For long he stood by his word that weapons are no solution. Today the coalition and the Union bring in common a motion which will prolong the Ukraine war and could make us a warring party to a nuclear war.

Valued colleagues, we are contending over the future of Germany. It is about war and peace and Mitteleuropa, and Herr Scholz travels to the cherry blossoms in Japan. And, no: Even travel plans can be changed. Remember: The Chancellor let Foreign Minister Baerbock return early to Berlin so as to vote on the vaccination mandate. Therein is shown where lie the priorities of this Chancellor.  

All who always speak of having learned from history are today the first who want to actively draw us into a war. Precisely that is signified by this motion put forward today. It reads like a statement of application to a war.

            Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann (FDP): Mein Gott!

Its character recalls the darkest of times.

I need once more clearly say: We are not at war with Russia or any other country and the great majority of the German population do not want to participate in this war.

On that account, it must be asked: What purpose do you pursue? The Ukraine does not belong to NATO, and not the EU, and is just so a sovereign state in Europe as is Russia. It is in the German interest, and in the future for both states, to maintain a good relation, political, economic and cultural.

Surely with the Federal government’s decision to deliver Gepard panzers to the Ukraine was Germany’s position decisively weakened, since we can no longer appear as a neutral mediator. We can actually only hope that this proceeding has not conclusively blocked the diplomatic path. You intervene with weapons deliveries in a foreign war and call that a “values-guided foreign policy”. Have you actually asked yourselves what effect this decision has on our partners China and India? We need an interest-guided foreign policy for Germany and Europe.

            Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann (FDP): We need values!

The Bundestag delegation of the Alternative für Deutschland quite definitely speaks out against the delivery of weapons to the Ukraine. Weapons have never shortened a war and are not humanitarian aid.

            Johannes Vogel (FDP): Ahistoric! Ahistorical [****].

We need to continue our humanitarian aid. By that I mean the support of war refugees as well as the assistance for those locally suffering from the emergency; for example, the delivery of medical assistance, of medicines, as well as the preparation of clean water and energy.

Many here in the plenary hall, and certainly also in the media, need to finally disarm rhetorically. The peace rhetoric needs to step into the foreground, not the war rhetoric.

Valued colleagues, please come to reason. Allow your consciences to decide and vote against the delivery of weapons to the Ukraine! The Alternative für Deutschland

            Vice-president Katrin Göring-Eckardt: Please come to a conclusion.

is the only delegation in the German Bundestag that stands for peace on the continent of Europe.

Many thanks.

            Joe Weingarten (SPD): What idiocy!

            Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann (FDP): To Moscow with love!

 

[trans: tem]

Friday, April 29, 2022

Alexander Gauland, April 28, 2022, Ukraine, Russia and Weapons

German Bundestag, Plenarprotokoll 20/31, pp. 2732-2733.

Frau President. Ladies and gentlemen.

It is ever a thankless task to seek explanations for a situation which kills women and children and lays cities in rubble and ash. And when it has to do with freedom, democracy and Western values, one must in a country like Germany stand on the right side of history.The moral always beats the geopolitics.

For long we know that NATO is a defensive alliance and Putin, if he was not afraid of freedom, need not fear NATO. So simple, so unterkomplex! Unless it does not depend simply on our estimate of NATO, but on the Russian viewpoint. And here since the German reunification, the Russians witness an uninterrupted advance towards the Russian borders of a military alliance opposed to them.

Ladies and gentlemen, it is not only a confrontation of autocracy and democracy but also a clash of political, military and economic interests. And therefore it is also wrong to heat up this conflict with heavy weapons. Since – thus, Angela Merkel’s earlier military advisor, Erich Vad – “Every military solution leads to catastrophe.” When German politicians – and it again occurs today – postulate “Russia is not allowed to win”, it must then be added: It is also not allowed to lose, for an atomic power can employ the means of the 20th and 21st Centuries in a war like that of the 19th Century. And that, hopefully, we also do not want!

In the case of Russia, there is added a further dilemma. Decrees according to the norms of international law have in history only proved tenable when the defeated side was included as an equal. The best historical example is the Vienna Decree of 1815 following the victory over Napoleon. In that France could play a role as an equal, the participants in Vienna avoided an enduring, revolutionary discontent of the defeated. The complete opposite of that was Versailles 1919. And precisely that, ladies and gentlemen, is today the Russia problem: It never really accepted internally the one-sided changes following 1989. They would have been better accomplished working with Russia, and not against a passed-over, weakened power under Yeltsin.

Comparisons are always imperfect – however, the eastward expansion of NATO was more Versailles than Vienna. A weakened Russia swallowed that. Now, where in the Ukraine it touches on the core of the Czarist Empire, like that of the Soviet Union, the Russian elites see a red line overstepped. As long as Russia is a great power and an atomic power, an arrangement only becomes durable when the country internally shares in it. A Western Ukraine is not it. It consequently can only be a compromise – only a compromise! – to end this war, not however a victory of one side or the other. The delivery of heavy weapons to the Ukraine is thus no sensible contribution, ladies and gentlemen.

            Vice-president Katrin Göring-Eckardt: Herr Gauland, come to a                                                conclusion, please.

A diplomatic initiative by Germany would be much more sensible and important.

I am grateful.

 

[trans:tem]

 

 

 

 

Thursday, April 28, 2022

Rüdiger Lucassen, April 28, 2022, Weapons Deliveries to the Ukraine

AfD Kompakt, April 28, 2022.

The Gepard is a solid, near-range anti-aircraft system, but only with a high state of training for the crew in specific conjunction with other troop elements, and when sufficient munitions and maintenance have seen secured. These prerequisites for the mission in the Ukraine armed forces are at the moment not, or not sufficiently, at hand. I thus venture the prognosis that the Gepard will not be employed in the Ukraine war. In my view, it is a question of a placebo so that the Federal government need not appear with empty hands at the donors conference in Ramstein. This confirms the AfD delegation’s basic scepticism in regards weapons deliveries to the Ukraine.

 

[trans: tem]

Wednesday, April 27, 2022

Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla, April 26, 2022, Weapons for the Ukraine

AfD Kompakt, April 26, 2022.

The motion of the CDU and the CSU for the delivery of heavy weapons to the Ukraine is incendiary. It is a further step in a dangerous over-bidding competition which threatens to ever further draw Germany into the war. At the same time, the implementation of the Union’s motion would additionally weaken the Bundeswehr, since many of the demanded weapons shall initially be delivered from the Bundeswehr’s stocks.

The AfD’s position is clear: We fundamentally reject the delivery of weapons to the war zone. We must avoid all which contributes to that the war in the Ukraine becomes a widespread conflagration, and a military and thus an atomic confrontation of NATO with Russia.

Instead of always speaking of new weapons deliveries, the Federal government needs to now start a broadly disposed diplomatic initiative, the purpose of which must be peace talks between the Ukraine and Russia under international mediation.

 

[trans: tem]