In a debate surrounding a prominent SPD politician’s manifesto on reorienting Russia policy, the Saarland CDU leader, Stephan Toscani, has called on the SPD leadership to clarify their continued involvement in the federal government.
Toscani told the Rheinische Post (Friday) that the so-called Russia Manifest is not a simple debate contribution, but a fundamental question that the SPD must urgently clarify: “Russia or government?” He emphasized that it is primarily the deputy SPD chair and Saarland Minister-President, Anke Rehlinger, who is being demanded to clarify this issue. Rehlinger, a key figure in the SPD’s leadership, had downplayed the pro-Russian demands from within the party and sugarcoated the issue during her appearance on the ZDF show “Markus Lanz” on Wednesday. “It is telling that she does not stand by her party’s chairman, Klingbeil and instead leaves him exposed” Toscani said. According to Toscani, something is amiss within the SPD, as it is now openly debating, without clear opposition to the party leadership, whether negotiations with the war-mongering Putin could be an alternative to strengthening Germany’s defense capabilities.
The coalition agreement is still only a few weeks old and it laid out the fundamental foreign policy positions of the coalition. “We must be able to defend ourselves, so that we do not have to defend ourselves – that is our clear stance as the CDU. This was also the basis for the coalition with the SPD” Toscani said.