German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht submitted her resignation today, Monday, after facing - for months - severe criticism of her performance and accusations of several mistakes.
A Defense Ministry statement said Lambrecht, 57, had asked Chancellor Olaf Scholz to relieve her of her post.
The resigned minister wrote in the statement, "The media's focus on my person - over the course of months - hardly allows for the issuance of objective reports, a discussion about army soldiers, or defining security-political paths for the benefit of German citizens. The valuable work that our soldiers and many other people do should be Enthusiasts in this field, at the fore. That's why I decided to leave my post."
And German media reports stated - last week - that the Minister of Defense was about to resign from her post, after she faced sharp criticism regarding her competence and her comments on the "Instagram" application regarding Russia's war on Ukraine.
Over the course of months, Lambrecht was criticized, and the opposition Christian Democratic Alliance repeatedly demanded her dismissal, and her critics accused her of slow performance in purchasing weapons and equipment for the German army and lack of experience, and arrows of criticism were directed at her, after publishing a picture of her son on an army helicopter during a business trip. for the minister.
The German Minister of Defense also recently aroused more resentment towards her because of a message - attached to a video clip - that she posted on Instagram, in which she talked about the Russian war on Ukraine, while fireworks were being launched on the occasion of New Year's in the background of the video clip.
The resigned minister belongs to the Social Democratic Party, to which Schultz belongs, and in addition to the socialists, the current German government includes the Green Party and the Free Democratic Party.
It is noteworthy that Lambrecht is the second minister to resign from her position in the government of Chancellor Olaf Schultz, after the Minister of Family Affairs, Anne Spiegel, who resigned following criticism of her performance during the July 2021 flood disaster, being the Minister of Environmental Affairs in the local government in the state of Rhineland-Waltz, which was affected by the disaster.