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Within his coalition, Olaf Scholz is used to being criticized by his ecologist and liberal partners for not doing enough to help Ukraine fight Russia. Now, the German Chancellor is also being criticized by intellectuals from within his political family. “As academics and members of the Social Democratic Party [SPD], we are observing the SPD’s position on Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine with growing concern,” wrote five historians to the party leadership in a letter that was made public on Wednesday, March 27.
Co-signed by the highly respected Heinrich August Winkler, an eminent specialist in contemporary Germany and himself a member of the SPD since 1962, the two-page letter is a harsh indictment of Scholz and his party’s leaders, who are accused of lacking “clarity” in their support for Ukraine. According to the letter’s authors, the chancellor’s recent refusal to deliver long-range Taurus-type missiles to Kyiv’s forces was justified with “arbitrary, meandering and partly inaccurate” arguments. In their view, the decision was taken “in a manner that lacked coordination with Germany’s allies.” In their view, this “lack of unity” can only “make Putin feel even more encouraged to do as he pleases.”
In their letter, the five historians took particular aim at Rolf Mützenich, the leader of the SPD MPs, whom they criticize for having declared – on the Bundestag platform on March 14 – that “the time has perhaps come to think about a way of freezing the war.” In their view, such a statement is tantamount to saying that the conflict will have to end “to the advantage of the aggressor,” which contradicts Scholz’s insistence that “Ukraine must not lose the war.”
‘The outcome of the war will necessarily be negotiated’
Mützenich was roundly criticized for suggesting a possible “freeze” in the conflict. “This guy is the most disgusting politician in Germany,” reacted the former Ukrainian ambassador to Berlin, Andrij Melnyk, who is now posted in Brazil. Even within the SPD, some – such as Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, for whom “there must be no freeze [in the conflict], which would strengthen Putin and allow him to continue the war as he sees fit” – have distanced themselves.
An SPD left-wing figure, Mützenich has always stood out for his pacifist convictions, which in recent years have led him to advocate a policy of reaching out to Russia. On this point, he has found himself in agreement with the heirs of former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder (1998-2005). Like the current President of the Republic, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who, when he was Angela Merkel’s Foreign Minister (from 2005 to 2009 and then from 2013 to 2017), was known as a “Putinversteher” (“someone who understands Putin”).
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