Berlin will no longer be able to play the role of mediator with Moscow

Scholz's decision to send tanks into Ukraine upsets Germany's relations with Russia

• American Abrams tanks, which America agreed to supply to Kyiv.

  EPA

• Schulz will face difficult days with his supporters in the government in the future.

  EPA

• President Joe Biden's decision to send 32 M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine provided no further justification for Schultz.

  EPA

• German Leopard tank that Scholz agreed to supply to Ukraine.

  Father

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After months of hesitation, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced last Wednesday that Germany would send 14 Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, and that European countries that bought tanks from Germany would be allowed to send them to Kyiv.

After sustained pressure from the United States, and from many of Germany's European allies, Schulz ended a chapter in his 13-month leadership that risked isolating Germany, dividing Europe, and annexing Serious damage to Berlin's relations with the United States.

Dempsey said in a report published by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace that Schulz told the German parliament that his decision was fully consistent with his previous actions.

He said that Germany did not want an escalation of the war in Ukraine, which Russia claimed would be the result of sending tanks, and for that reason was not willing to allow other countries to supply Ukraine with Leopard 2 tanks or to do so unilaterally without cover from the United States, and did not advocate President Joe Biden's decision to send 32 M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine No more justification for Schultz.

Next chapter

Dempsey said that now comes the next chapter for the German chancellor, and it will not be a smooth chapter even compared to the previous chapter, for two reasons: the first is the repercussions within his Social Democratic Party, as the left wing in the party has always been against sending tanks, and even against arming Ukraine, and this is not only because they are advocates Peace, and their feelings are ambivalent for NATO and the United States, as they see the war started by Russia gradually ending decades of very close relations between Germany and Russia.

The relations stipulated in the “Eastern Policy” were formulated in the 1960s by Willy Brandt, the chancellor and leader of the Social Democratic Party, in order to bring Russia closer to Europe, and even integrate it into the German part of the European continent.

When German leaders concluded an agreement with Moscow to construct and finance the first gas pipeline in the early 1970s, the United States warned them of the dangers of this energy contract, as Washington saw the contract as an attempt by Moscow to weaken the transatlantic link by establishing a special relationship with what was Known at the time as West Germany, the Social Democratic Party considered the energy contract a way to “liberate” Germany from some of the sweeping domination of America in Western Europe.

Challenging the principle of "Eastern politics"

Almost any SPD leader who opposed Germany's growing rapprochement with Moscow was considered a heretic, and when Helmut Schmidt, another SPD chancellor, faced widespread demonstrations against the US deployment of Pershing missiles, in response to Moscow's deployment of the SS-20 in East Germany - he got his way - but he was never forgiven for his defiance of the ideological and political principle of "East Politics".

Dempsey adds that since the 1980s, the Social Democratic Party (with the support of the conservative Christian Democratic Party and the Christian Social Union) has intensified these economic and political contracts with Russia.

The big prize for the Social Democrats and Russian President Vladimir Putin was the construction of the Nord Stream pipelines, which allowed Russia to send gas directly to Germany under the Baltic Sea.

Poland, the Baltic states and the United States have repeatedly warned Germany of its growing energy dependence on Russia.

Schultz did not abandon the Nord Stream 2 pipeline until after severe pressure after the start of the Russian-Ukrainian war last February, and in light of the increasing pressure he faced regarding tanks, Schultz succumbed to pressure regarding the Nord Stream pipeline.

opposition front

However, SPD officials have expressed their dismay over the termination of the pipeline and the decision to send the tanks to Ukraine, saying that the two decisions undermined Germany's relations with Russia and even excluded Germany from playing any mediating role in negotiating an end to the war in Ukraine.

Such dissatisfaction could turn into an opposition front against Schulz within the Social Democratic Party.

Dempsey adds that the second reason that Schulz's next chapter will not be smooth is the future of German-Russian relations. A Kremlin spokesman threatened that the tanks would "be burned like all other tanks" and that they would not affect the outcome of the war.

Russian state television's coverage of Berlin's decision was scathing. This reaction should come as no surprise to anyone, but it helps explain Schulz's indecision. After 1945, Germany spent years trying to create trust with Russia in order to overcome centuries of conflict and rebuild The formation of these complex relationships, and now Scholz faces an uncharted path with Russia.

Dempsey concluded her report by saying that Schultz must now accept, however reluctantly, that Berlin's role as a mediator has ended, as well as its special relations with Moscow, and perhaps the end of this chapter is an opportunity for Schultz to shift his country's focus to Europe and its transatlantic relations in this global theater the new.

• Scholz must now accept, however grudgingly, that Berlin's special relations with Moscow are over.

• When German leaders concluded an agreement with Moscow to construct and finance the first gas pipeline in the early 1970s, the United States warned them of the dangers of this energy contract.

• Since the eighties of the last century, the Social Democratic Party (with the support of the conservative Christian Democratic Party and the Christian Social Union) has intensified its economic and political contracts with Russia.

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