It sounds defensive, as leading Social Democrats have been insisting for the past few days that there are "no red lines" in supporting Ukraine in its fight against Russia.

This phrase keeps coming up when asked about the delivery of Leopard main battle tanks to Kyiv.

Around Monday afternoon, when the SPD chairman Lars Klingbeil spoke after a meeting of the presidium in the Willy-Brandt-Haus.

There is no decision for a no, added Klingbeil.

Combined with the remark that the Federal Chancellor bears the responsibility and must have the time he needs to coordinate with the partners, this sounds like a request to be patient a little longer until a decision is made.

Eckhart Lohse

Head of the parliamentary editorial office in Berlin.

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Markus Wehner

Political correspondent in Berlin.

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In the SPD it no longer sounds as if the content of this decision is still open.

When the new Social Democrat Defense Minister Boris Pistorius was questioned on ARD on Sunday evening, he justified his order to his own people to compile a list of which Leopard tanks were available with the aim of having a basis for action “when it starts if it starts".

He spoke of "time X" and was convinced that a decision would soon be made.

He immediately neutralized the restriction “whatever it looks like” with the remark “that tanks are needed, that an offensive movement is needed” with regard to eastern Ukraine.

Self-criticism in SPD paper

In the federal government, the need to support Ukraine with battle tanks is generally approved - after all, Scholz and his ministers are aware that Russia is preparing a major offensive.

Since the leopard is present in many European countries, the solution seems logical that the broadest possible alliance should provide it.

But since this is a qualitatively new step, Chancellor Scholz finds it difficult if America, the West's largest military power, does not go along with it.

The open question is whether the Americans will deliver Abrams tanks after all or will they find another solution with which they can send out an equivalent signal.

During the Ramstein conference last Friday, everyone involved was obviously not ready to solve this problem.

A delivery of the most powerful German tank in a war zone would be the most extreme expression of a fundamentally changed foreign policy of the SPD.

The party summarized their realignment in a paper that Klingbeil presented on Monday.

In the text of the international commission, it is said several times that "one's own strength" is the prerequisite for peace and freedom.

It is also conceded that “revisionist and imperialist Russia” counts large parts of Eastern Europe within its sphere of influence.

"Putin has never recognized the territorial integrity and political sovereignty of many Eastern European states," the Social Democrats have now stated.

The societies of Eastern and Central Europe had "experienced growing aggression and threats from an expansionist Russia for two decades".