Germany: Right and far-left MPs boycott Zelensky’s speech in the Bundestag

German lawmakers from the right and far left boycotted a speech by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to Bundestag in Berlin on Tuesday after he warned that pro-Russian rhetoric posed a growing threat to EU countries.

Zelensky’s speech came at the start of a diplomatic tour to rally support for Kiev’s fight against Moscow.

In a sign of the headwinds Kiev faces in gaining support, lawmakers from Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) and far-left Sarah Wagnknecht (BSW) boycotted Zelensky’s speech to the Bundestag.

Both parties made significant gains in Sunday’s European elections, with the Alternative for Germany (AfD) beating all three parties in Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s coalition, while Sarah Wagnkennecht’s new coalition, which has focused its campaign on opposing arms deliveries to Ukraine, received more than 6% of the vote.

Zelensky warned that the position of pro-Kremlin parties posed a threat beyond Ukraine’s borders.

“It seems to me that the most important thing is that people didn’t choose the populist pro-Russian rhetoric, but radical pro-Russian rhetoric is dangerous for your countries”.

The AfD co-chairs said the party “refuses to listen to a speaker in uniform”.

Tino Shrubala and Alice Fidel stressed that “Ukraine doesn’t need a war president now… You need a peace president willing to negotiate,” they said, adding that AfD deputies had therefore decided to leave their seats empty in the Bundestag on Tuesday.

The far-right gains not only in Germany, but across the European Union, have raised concerns about the future of Western support for Ukraine.

Ahead of a peace conference in Ukraine to be hosted by Switzerland to which Russia hasn’t been invited, parties such as the Alternative for Germany (AfD) are reiterating the message that the West’s current strategy of arming Ukraine won’t end the fighting.

But Scholz vowed at the Ukraine Reconstruction Conference in Berlin not to back down from support for Kiev.

He urged his country’s allies to quickly provide air defense systems to Ukraine to help it counter Russian missiles and stressed that he would not allow Russian President Vladimir Putin to win the war.

“There will be no military victory and no peace imposed,” he said, adding that Putin must “put an end to his brutal campaign and withdraw his troops”.

Zelensky also asked for aid, “Russia’s most important strategic advantage over Ukraine is its superiority in the air… Its rocket and bomb terrorism that helps Russian forces advance on the ground,” he said, adding that “air defense is the solution”.

Germany sent three air defense systems to Kiev while Zelensky said Ukraine needed seven of them to protect its urban centers from a barrage of Russian missiles.

The Ukrainian president noted that Russian air strikes have so far destroyed half of his country’s electricity production capacity since winter.

Later Tuesday, Zelensky, accompanied by German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, visited a military training area in Santiz in northern Germany, where Ukrainian soldiers are training to use Patriot systems.

Pistorius promised Ukraine an additional hundred Patriot missiles along with sniper rifles, anti-tank weapons and drones.