Not everyone loves the idea of more American longer-range missiles on German soil.
That’s especially true for the members of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democratic Party (SPD).
The decision by Scholz to agree to allow the United States to base missiles in Germany from 2026 that are capable of striking targets at distances of 2,500 kilometers — easily able to hit Moscow from Berlin — has some in his own party up in arms.
“Not every weapon makes Germany immediately safer,” Rolf Mützenich, the leader of the SPD faction in the Bundestag lower house of parliament, told POLITICO’s Berlin Playbook podcast. He had earlier argued that the deployment further escalates the simmering conflict between the West and Russia, and makes a miscalculation more likely.
Russian President Vladimir Putin warned that the missiles could eventually be equipped with nuclear weapons and threatened a tit-for-tat response should Washington deploy them.
The objections from SPD members of parliament come despite the Bundestag not really having a say in the issue, as the deployment doesn’t involve public spending and won’t be controlled by the German military. But senior SPD lawmakers working on defense and security said in a note to colleagues, seen by POLITICO, that they will call a debate in the Bundestag in September to discuss the issue. Läs artikel