Bundestag Vice President Wolfgang Kubicki (FDP) expects more support from his party’s ranks in a possible further vote on the delivery of Taurus cruise missiles in the Bundestag. “I am sure that the Union will submit an application again next week and I am also sure that this time more MPs will vote to deliver Taurus to Ukraine,” said the deputy federal chairman of the FDP Münchner Merkur. “Last time, at least a dozen other colleagues I know would have loved to have agreed to the Union motion, but they submitted to coalition discipline. I was also close to doing so. This time I would have reached the point of doing it,” Kubicki said.
Against the background of the affair surrounding intercepted conversations of Air Force officers about the use of Taurus cruise missiles in Ukraine, Kubicki also warned the Union against “hitting the Chancellor or the traffic light in its application. Two simple sentences about Taurus and I suspect there is at least a dozen voices from the FDP taking part.”
Defense Committee discusses wiretapping affair
Next Monday, the Bundestag’s Defense Committee is expected to address the wiretapping affair in a special meeting. “By then we will have more information,” said committee chairwoman Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann Rhenish Post. “We will discuss the extent to which our institutions are prepared for a hybrid attack,” said the FDP politician. “Otherwise, I urgently expect the opposition to deal with this situation with all seriousness, but also with confidence. Putin only wants one thing: that we attack each other now,” said Strack-Zimmermann.
More on the topic: Taurus
Taurus wiretapping scandal: Opposition is considering committee of inquiry into wiretapping affair
Taurus cruise missile: when would we be a belligerent?
War in Ukraine: Bundestag rejects Union application for Taurus delivery to Ukraine
In this regard, SPD foreign politician Nils Schmid opposed the Union’s demand that Chancellor Olaf Scholz be questioned in the Defense Committee about the conversation of high-ranking Bundeswehr officers about Taurus that was intercepted by Russia. A special session is conceivable, said the SPD politician. “However, it is adventurous to involve the Chancellor. He has nothing at all to do with the Air Force’s video call.” Schmid considers the proposal for a committee of inquiry, also made by the Union’s ranks, to be “completely absurd”. “The Union must be careful that, despite all its legitimate opposition work, it does not drift into a politically irresponsible populism.”
Unlike the Chancellor, large parts of the FDP and Greens, as well as the Union parties, are in favor of supplying the weapons system to Ukraine. In February, Strack-Zimmermann was the only member of her group to approve a Union motion that contained this demand. The motion was rejected by a majority of MPs from the ranks of the traffic light coalition.
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On Friday, the Russian state media RT published a recorded conference call between four high-ranking officers, including Air Force Chief Ingo Gerhartz. In it, they discussed operational scenarios for the German Taurus cruise missile if it were to be delivered to Ukraine. Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) justified his rejection of Taurus deliveries by saying that Germany could then be drawn into the war. Taurus has a range of 500 kilometers and can therefore also hit targets in Moscow from Ukraine.
Bundestag Vice President Wolfgang Kubicki (FDP) expects more support from his party’s ranks in a possible further vote on the delivery of Taurus cruise missiles in the Bundestag. “I am sure that the Union will submit an application again next week and I am also sure that this time more MPs will vote to deliver Taurus to Ukraine,” said the deputy federal chairman of the FDP Münchner Merkur. “Last time, at least a dozen other colleagues I know would have loved to have agreed to the Union motion, but they submitted to coalition discipline. I was also close to doing so. This time I would have reached the point of doing it,” Kubicki said.