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Finance Minister Lindner: “Our peace and freedom are threatened”
Photo: Christian Marquardt / EPA
Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner has warned against providing less support to Ukraine in its defense against Russia. »Our peace and our freedom are threatened. Putin is not just concerned with Ukraine, he wants to change the order of peace and freedom in Europe," said the FDP leader to the "Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger" (Saturday). »He wants power over us to control our way of life and our wealth. Anyone who gets tired of supporting Ukraine because it is too strenuous or too expensive should consider the consequences. The threat of war would come closer to us.”
“You can’t freeze a situation like this”
Lindner opposed considerations of freezing the war, as suggested by SPD parliamentary group leader Rolf Mützenich. »Russia has committed war crimes. For Ukraine it is about existence as a state. And for people it is often about sheer survival. You can’t freeze a situation like this,” he said. Such considerations would not go down well in states that felt threatened by Putin, such as the Baltics. Lindner asked a counter question: "How would it affect us if the French National Assembly were to consider freezing a conflict if the enemy were in Chemnitz?" Putin should not be allowed to achieve his war goals.
Mützenich had asked during a Bundestag debate about the delivery of Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine: "Isn't it time that we not only talk about how to fight a war, but also think about how to freeze a war and later can also end?" The statement had brought Mützenich clear criticism from the ranks of the SPD coalition partners Greens and FDP.
SPD leader Lars Klingbeil and Chancellor Olaf Scholz defended Mützenich early on, but politicians from the coalition partners FDP and Greens sharply criticized the statement.
aka/dpa