By Paul Carrel
(Reuters) – Frustration is growing among German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s junior coalition partners over what they say are shortcomings in his leadership on Ukraine, an internal rift that risks undermining Western unity against Russia.
After a dramatic policy pivot at the start of the crisis, when Scholz halted the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project with Russia days before its invasion of Ukraine, and then vowed a big jump in defence spending, his partners accuse him of dithering.
“I have the impression that Mr Scholz is not aware of the serious damage he is doing to Germany’s reputation in Central Europe, in Eastern Europe, basically in the whole of Europe,” Anton Hofreiter, Greens chairman of parliament’s Europe committee, told Reuters.
Seven weeks into the war, the junior Greens and liberal Free Democratic (FDP) parties in Scholz’s coalition are vexed that Berlin is not meeting Ukrainian pleas to send it more heavy weapons, amid warnings from Kyiv that Russia is ramping up for a major offensive in Ukraine’s south and east.
Some in the three-way coalition with Scholz’s left-leaning Social Democratic Party (SPD) also want him to do more to reduce German energy dependence on Russia.
“He must finally show leadership,” Hofreiter said.
Last week, Ukraine’s ambassador to Berlin accused the German government of half-hearted support for Kyiv and said his country had become a victim of Germany’s “shameful” reliance on Russian oil and gas. He also demanded more heavy weapons.
Pressed on Wednesday over Germany’s delivery of weapons, Scholz told rbb24 Inforadio that Berlin was sending Ukraine anti-tank weapons, air defence missiles and other arms.
He was quick to add: “We will make sure to avoid NATO, the NATO countries and…Germany becoming parties to the war.”
The SPD has so far kept largely silent in the face of partners’ accusations of vacillation and slack leadership.
Party leader Lars Klingbeil said on April 5 Germany must look into extra arm deliveries – “what is necessary and what makes sense”. On Thursday, Michael Roth, SPD chair of parliament’s foreign relations committee, said his Easter break was starting and “I need time to reflect”.
BALANCING ACT
Scholz must balance pressure from the Greens in particular to step up arms supplies to Ukraine with some reticence in elements of his SPD, which long advocated Western rapprochement with Russia prior to the war in Ukraine.
Underlining the Greens’ robust stance, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, a member of the ecologist party, called this week for the delivery of more heavy weapons, adding: “Now is not the time for excuses, but for creativity and pragmatism.”
Hofreiter went further and called for a coal and oil embargo against Russia “as a minimum”.
The European Union last Friday overcame some divisions to adopt new sweeping sanctions against Russia, including bans on the import of coal, wood, and chemicals.
However, oil and gas imports from Russia – the financial lifeline of its war machine, critics say – so far remain untouched, with Berlin leading resistance to the move.
Germany, Europe’s largest and wealthiest economy, gets about 25% of its oil and 40% of its gas from Russia. Russian gas accounts for 40% of overall EU imports of that energy source.
“I am of the opinion that even a complete energy embargo is possible,” said Hofreiter, who visited Ukraine this week with Roth and the FDP’s Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, who chairs parliament’s defence committee.
Mujtaba Rahman, Managing Director, Europe at the Eurasia political risk consultancy, expects Germany will ultimately buckle on oil sanctions lest the West’s unity break.
“The cracks are really beginning to show in the coalition, but the top and bottom of it is (that) Germany’s policy on Russia and Ukraine is entirely unsustainable,” he said in an email to Reuters. “On oil sanctions, on EU fiscal support, the position of Berlin will be forced to evolve.”
(Additional reporting by Reuters TV; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
