It's Wednesday afternoon, Olaf Scholz has already answered a number of questions.

It is not the first time that the chancellor has faced the deputies in the government survey in the Bundestag.

But on Wednesday it fits particularly well.

The night before, the news leaked out that Berlin not only wants to allow other countries to export Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, but also wants to make them available from its own stocks.

Shortly before Scholz's appearance, the federal government confirmed the project.

Now he can explain the matter to the people's representatives before an evening television interview.

Eckhart Lohse

Head of the parliamentary editorial office in Berlin.

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Markus Wehner

Political correspondent in Berlin.

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Majid Sattar

Political correspondent for North America based in Washington.

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MPs appreciate this order.

But the exciting thing about the question and answer session is not what Scholz says about the leopards.

The press release already said that Berlin and its partners would provide two battalions of tanks and that Germany would “in a first step” provide a company with 14 Leopard 2-A6s from Bundeswehr stocks.

There you can read that this should happen “quickly”.

The Chancellor did not specify this time.

The close cooperation with the partners has already been pointed out in writing before Scholz emphasizes it.

Details of when what was agreed with whom, he remains guilty.

He only emphasizes the good relationship with American President Joe Biden.

No, something else is more exciting this afternoon.

Scholz is asking for trust

It's what Scholz says about things he won't do.

At first he reacted with a pinch of humor to accusations from the AfD and made it clear that the tank decision would not be about the delivery of western aircraft.

"If you see something there, tell me," the chancellor countered with AfD foreign policy expert Petr Bystron.

Shortly thereafter, Scholz goes into more detail about the steps that should not be taken.

Non-attached MP Robert Farle, a former AfD and former DKP man, had asked him whether planes or even ground troops would be sent soon.

At some point it has to be "over".

Scholz does not brush Farle off how he masters it.

Rather, he speaks of concerns that made many citizens.

He advertises that they should trust the government.

He opposed it as early as the early phase of Russia's war against Ukraine about a no-fly zone.

One will not be “impressed by gossip” now either.

Then the Chancellor says: "There will be no ground troops."

Olaf Scholz often makes it clear that he thinks the public debate about Germany's military aid is overheated.

He sees how quickly decisions that required a long start-up are checked off and taken for granted.

It has been less than three weeks since Germany, America and France announced the delivery of Western armored personnel carriers to Ukraine.

There is no more talk of this on Wednesday in the Bundestag or in the public discussion.