The federal government has promised Ukraine the delivery of Leopard tanks and is now relying on arms deliveries in the Russian war of aggression. The AfD is against it. In the Saxon state parliament, however, the party finds little support for its position.
Dresden (dpa / sn) - Saxony's state parliament discussed how to deal with the Russian war of aggression and arms deliveries to Ukraine. The debate on Thursday was requested by the AfD parliamentary group for the current hour. The AfD rejects arms deliveries to Ukraine and instead calls for a purely diplomatic solution.
"We don't want hundreds of thousands of people to die, tens of thousands of civilians to die and a country to be completely ruined," said Jörg Urban. Germany is financing the war in Ukraine to a considerable extent - with taxpayers' money, among other things. Urban said he couldn't do much with the argument that he was defending European values by supplying arms. "Ukraine is the most corrupt state in Europe," said the AfD politician. In addition, all opposition parties are banned in Ukraine. Urban also doubts freedom of expression in Ukraine. "Alternative media and media critical of the government no longer exist in Ukraine."
CDU MP Ronny Wähner expressly rejected Urban's position. "What counts is the strength of the law and not the law of the strongest," said Wähner. Ukraine has the right to defend its territory. Legally valid borders should not be shifted by military means.
Like the AfD, the left faction rejected arms deliveries to Ukraine. However, a debate must be possible, it said. There should be "no hot NATO war against Russia," said the parliamentary group leader of the left, Rico Gebhardt. From the party's point of view, the debate is "legitimate and not Kremlin propaganda".
Green party leader Franziska Schubert made it clear that peace can only be negotiated at eye level. In addition, it can be assumed that Russia is planning a spring offensive. That is why the party agreed to the arms deliveries. This is about defending Ukraine and not about attacking Russia. However, she can understand the concerns about the arms deliveries, she said. She too had a hard time making this decision.
Hanka Kliese (SPD) shared this opinion. She criticized the title of the debate formulated by the AfD: "Committed to peace! Diplomacy instead of weapons!". According to the SPD politician, the fact that the AfD used this debate title could not be surpassed in terms of ridiculousness - especially since the AfD has not yet understood that there is a right to conscientious objection. In addition, there are still militant people in the AfD, such as Björn Höcke, who would try to overthrow the country with military means.
At the end of the debate, Interior Minister Armin Schuster (CDU) thanked the CDU, the Greens, the Left Party and the SPD for a "highly serious debate". "Here four factions have shown that they know how difficult this ordeal is." At the moment, the most important thing is the courage to engage in open debate - and the courage to be able to endure ambivalence.
