There is a lot of talk about how the SPD stands on Russia.
Less about how she feels about America.
It belongs together.
Anyone looking for closeness to Russia will hardly find it without distancing themselves from America.
Especially not in security policy.
So, to take stock of foreign policy, you have to look at how Social Democrats were still talking about the United States until recently.
Morten Freidel
Editor in the politics of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sunday newspaper
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For example Rolf Mützenich, who has great influence as parliamentary group leader of the SPD.
At every opportunity, Mützenich demanded that Germany must emancipate itself from America.
After Trump announced that he would be withdrawing soldiers from Germany, Mützenich demanded that he take the nuclear weapons with him right away.
When Trump later lost the election, Mützenich reiterated his demand, as if to make sure it didn't get lost in the general enthusiasm about the outcome of the election in Germany.
One must rid oneself of the "scourge of nuclear deterrence," he said.
Mützenich wanted Europe to become more independent of America.
He is not alone in this in the SPD.
This is shown by the example of former Hamburg mayor Klaus von Dohnanyi, whom many in the party still perceive as an important voice.
A month before Russia invaded Ukraine, Dohnanyi published a book called National Interests.
America is pursuing its own goals, Dohnanyi writes there, which is why the Europeans should "finally clarify the misunderstanding of a 'friendship' between the USA and Europe, i.e. a community based on solidarity".
He demanded that Germany must keep its distance from America, just as much as it did from Russia.
It should not be a member of any military alliance, i.e. leave NATO.
Dohnanyi is certain that the alliance "dominated by the US" would not be able to protect Europe anyway.
Nor does he believe that the continent could defend itself on its own.
That's why he should remain neutral.
A great Switzerland.
Platzeck did not even mention the annexation of Crimea
CSU General Secretary Stephan Mayer criticizes the FAS "The Americans are much closer to us culturally than Russia, and in terms of security policy they are of paramount importance for Germany," he says.
"I am deeply opposed to the idea that both countries should be kept at the same length."
How such positions sound among those who understand Putin on the fringes of the SPD can be read from the former Prime Minister of Brandenburg, Matthias Platzeck.
In 2017, he drew parallels between the presence of NATO in the Baltic States and the Nazi war of aggression.
"75 years after the invasion of the Soviet Union, German soldiers are sent to Lithuania on the Russian border," he wrote.
That was in the SPD party newspaper.
It sounded as if the German soldiers had marched into the Baltic States.
In fact, they took part in an exercise at the invitation of Lithuania.
Nevertheless, Platzeck thought it was “military muscle flexing”.
He did not once mention the annexation of Crimea three years earlier.
Platzeck chose particularly drastic words, but his position was shared by many in the SPD, including politicians with more weight than him.
When NATO was practicing in the Baltic States, then Foreign Minister Steinmeier called the “saber rattling” and “war howls”.
Politicians of the Union, which governed with the SPD, then assured hectically that they stood by the Western alliance.
Steinmeier reacted coolly to criticism from America.
Republican Senator John McCain repeatedly attacked him at the Munich Security Conference for his coziness with Russia.
Steinmeier said, referring to McCain: "If you only have a hammer in your hand, every problem looks like a nail." He liked to talk about American threats.
Not so much about Russian aggression in Eastern Europe.