Two years into Russia’s war, the ghost of the German Ostpolitik philosophy lingers over the country’s foreign policy
From: Euromaiden Press BY WINFRIED SCHNEIDER-DETERS
European security can only be had with Russia – that was the German Social Democratic Party’s (“SPD”) mantra after the end of the Cold War. The SPD’s election manifesto from May 2021 – ten months before the Russian invasion of Ukraine – still confirmed: “Peace in Europe cannot be achieved against Russia, but only with Russia.”
On 27 February 2022, three days after the Russian invasion, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) gave a speech in a special session of the German Bundestag, the first sentence of which read:
“24 February 2022 marks a turning point (“Zeitenwende”) in the history of our continent.”
The world afterwards is no longer the same as the world before, Scholz continued. “Putin’s war marks a turning point also for our foreign policy.”
Part of the party’s leadership went along with the “turning point” at least mentally. Others did not.
The SPD’s co-chair Lars Klingbeil admitted in a speech at a party event on 18 October 2022, that his party had made misjudgments in its policy towards Russia:
“In the search for common ground, we have often overlooked what divides us. That was a mistake. […] For the future, this means that the principle that there can only be security with Russia has become obsolete. […] Today it is about organizing security against Russia.”
Voice of Ukraine 