Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier spoke of mistakes in Germany's Russia policy and that he himself was wrong about Putin.

In doing so, he opened a door, not only for all politicians who have been responsible for the past twenty years, but also for the SPD, of which Steinmeier is still a party member.

But Chancellor Scholz refuses to go through that door.

Even beyond the days of the war, he does not want to have his party's policies, which are sometimes misguided, reappraised.

Instead, he sees social democracy in the victim role.

They have always been portrayed as insecure cantonists and falsified their role in history.

It's understandable that Scholz doesn't want to look back.

Because if he and others do that, the SPD would be thrown into violent storms.

A wrong and dangerous understanding of a good and peaceful coexistence with Russia has seeped in too deeply, as can also be seen from the current statements of prominent social democrats.

This chapter is not easy to close

Manuela Schwesig's lack of willingness to explain the cover-up tactics in the matter of Nord Stream 2 is also outrageous in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. Fifty years ago, the peace icon Willy Brandt was further along than many social democrats are today.

It is he whose role is being falsified by many comrades these days.

Now people like to claim – not only from SPD politicians – that they were wrong about Putin.

The fact is: Putin's atrocities from Grozny to Georgia to Syria have not particularly interested many leading social democrats.

The same applies to the murder and disenfranchisement of political opponents.

This chapter is not easy to close.

The realignment of relations with Russia has only just begun, and the SPD is now the chancellor's party.

But how does Scholz want to save the old Putin Connection SPD and at the same time be a reliable NATO partner for the countries on the eastern flank?