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Taurus cruise missiles over South Korea
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The question of the delivery of Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine has been shaping the political debate for weeks.
The Union is now planning a new push on the issue in the Bundestag.
The CDU and CSU want to vote there again next week on the delivery of the cruise missile to Ukraine.
“The CDU/CSU parliamentary group will put the question of Taurus delivery up for a roll-call vote in the Bundestag in the coming week of the meeting,” said parliamentary group leader Thorsten Frei (CDU) to the “Rheinische Post”.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) rejects the delivery of Taurus missiles with a range of 500 kilometers to Ukraine.
He fears that this could drag Germany into the war.
"I am the Chancellor, and that's why this applies," he said on Monday about his decision.
The Union now wants to put an application that was drafted in November to the vote.
It calls on the federal government to “finally and immediately comply with the Ukrainian request for the delivery of Taurus cruise missiles from the Bundeswehr’s available stocks to the greatest possible extent.”
The application is available to SPIEGEL.
It also calls for Ukrainian soldiers to be trained in the weapon system and for gaps in the Bundeswehr that would arise if Taurus systems were sold to be quickly closed.
Does the FDP agree this time?
Two weeks ago, the CDU/CSU failed with a similar request in the Bundestag.
From the traffic light coalition, only the chairwoman of the defense committee, Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann (FDP), voted in favor; all other MPs had bowed to the party and coalition discipline (read an analysis here).
This time things could be different.
The deputy FDP chairman Wolfgang Kubicki has already announced in the “Münchner Merkur” that he now wants to vote for the Union proposal.
"I'm sure the Union will submit another application next week and I'm also sure that this time more MPs will vote to deliver Taurus to Ukraine," said Kubicki a few days ago.
»Last time, at least a dozen other colleagues I know would have loved to have agreed to the Union proposal, but they submitted to coalition discipline.
I was close to it too,” said Kubicki.
"This time the point has been reached for me to do it."
The parliamentary managing director of the FDP parliamentary group, Stephan Thomae, told the “Augsburger Allgemeine” that many FDP MPs disagreed with Scholz and considered his decision against delivering Taurus to Ukraine to be factually incorrect.
CDU/CSU parliamentary group leader Frei said that at the end of this week Scholz would be “faced with the rubble of his baseless communication.”
It is therefore time “for the MPs to show him the way out of the impasse”.
The Union wants to put the motion on the Bundestag agenda for Thursday morning.
On Wednesday, Scholz will answer questions from MPs in parliament for the first time this year.
The discussion about a Taurus delivery is likely to play an important role here too.
slü/ulz/flo/dpa