Yesterday Boris Pistorious was named as Germany’s new defence minister. Up to now he has been the interior minister in the State of Lower Saxony. It comes as a surprise decision.
On Thursday US defence secretary Lloyd Austin will be in Germany. The Germans have to decide whether or not to deliver their Leopard battle tank to Ukraine.
The opposition CDU believes that the Scholz government is far too slow in coming to the support of Ukraine.
Coalition partners The Green Party and the FDP have expressed their willingness to deliver the Leopard tank to Ukraine.
People criticise Chancellor Scholz for his hesitancy in supporting the war in Ukraine. But it is understandable that a German chancellor would be slow to send heavy tanks to Ukraine. It must be a nightmare for any German chancellor to think of a scenario where German tanks face down Russian tanks on Ukrainian soil.
We are living in extremely dangerous times.
German history is so intertwined in its past. To add to the intrigue of it all the new defence minister Pistorious was in a relationship with Doris Schröder-Köpf from 2016 to 2022. She is a former wife of the now discredited chancellor Gerhard Schröder, who is a personal friend of Vladimir Putin.
And on a historical note, on this day in 1945 the Polish city of Krakow was liberated by the Red Army.
The war in Ukraine is the result of Putin’s aggression but Putin knows the buttons to push.
Yesterday CDU leader, Friedrich Merz said that the defence minister next to the chancellor is the most important person in the German cabinet.
Until the war in Ukraine most German politicians spoke about the German army, airforce and navy in whispers. The monster ghost of the Wehrmacht is never too far away.
Germany will be forever haunted by what the Wehrmacht did, but especially what it did in Ukraine.
It’s not too often spoken of but Germany, after the US, is the second largest contributor to the Ukrainian war effort.
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