Deutsche Welle: Fewer weapons and negotiations with Putin…election promises in eastern Germany

Foreign policy has long been considered a subject of negotiation in Berlin, where the federal government is responsible for the country’s security and foreign policy, as well as for issues of war and peace.

For this reason, discussions of foreign policy have traditionally only taken place during election campaigns for the federal Bundestag.

It’s therefore surprising that the prime ministers of three German states are now repeatedly talking about the war in Ukraine, and about the possibility of negotiating a ceasefire or even ending the war with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

In Thuringia, Saxony and shortly after Brandenburg, legislative elections will be held in a few weeks.

In these three eastern German states, the question of the German position on the Russian war in Ukraine and the supply of German weapons to Kiev has become an important topic, perhaps the most important one at the moment.

So has the question of whether to strengthen the German army and deploy new American weapons.

All these questions are the subject of much debate and skepticism in the east, which is why local politicians have become experts on foreign affairs.

Sarah Wagenknecht, founder of the new party “Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance” (BSW), has gone the furthest in this regard.

Her new party, which she founded at the beginning of this year after being a politician with the Left Party, is currently polling in Thuringia with around 20 percent of the vote, just over two weeks before the election.

This party could therefore play a major role in forming a government after the election.

Sarah Wagenknecht has said on several occasions recently that her BSW party won’t participate in any regional government unless it clearly rejects plans to deploy new American weapons in Germany from 2026, even if the decision on this matter isn’t made in the capital of Thuringia, Erfurt.

The debate is about weapons that are scheduled to be deployed in Germany from 2026, as a result of Russia’s hostile policy.

In an interview with Deutschlandfunk radio, Wagenknecht added, “The elections in eastern Germany are also a vote on war and peace… In other words, those who support Ukraine, a country under attack, are for war,” Wagenknecht said.

She added that her voters expect her to ensure that the risk of war doesn’t increase in Germany itself.

The prime ministers of Saxony and Brandenburg, Michael Kretschmer (CDU) and Dietmar Woedke (SPD), also made a statement on foreign policy.

For example, Kretschmer called for a reduction in military aid to Ukraine in light of the federal government budget and called for diplomatic initiatives to resolve the conflict in Ukraine.

“I once again call for increased diplomatic efforts… We need alliances, for example with China and India, that can put pressure on Putin to be ready for a ceasefire,” he told the German news network.

The reason for the sudden foreign policy positions of domestic politicians is the deep skepticism among the population of Germany’s eastern states about the policy of the federal government, which includes the Social Democratic Party, the Greens, and the Free Democratic Party, regarding Ukraine.

Since the start of the war in March 2022, Germany has provided Ukraine with around 23 billion Euros in support, including weapons, direct financial payments, and humanitarian aid, making it the second-largest supporter of Ukraine after the United States.

The Forsa opinion research institute reported that 34% of respondents in eastern Germany believe that Germany is doing too much to support Ukraine, while only 32% support the supply of heavy weapons such as tanks.

While the conservative opposition at the federal level, the Christian Democratic Union and the Christian Social Union, largely support the government’s policy towards Ukraine, two parties have recently emerged, especially in the east, that are strongly opposed to sending weapons and call for negotiations with Russia: the right-wing populist Alternative for Germany and the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance.

The leader of the Greens, the partner party in the federal government, Omid Nouripour, was particularly angry at the demands of these two parties to approach Russian President Vladimir Putin and offer him peace negotiations.

Commenting on similar statements by Kretschmer and the current Thuringian Prime Minister, Bodo Ramelow of the Left Party, Nouripour told the German editorial network (RND).

“They act as if they can achieve peace by burying their heads in the sand, but cowardice doesn’t bring peace… In fact, Putin has so far shown no willingness to enter into peace talks,” Nouripour said.

Recently, controversy has been escalating over the decision to deploy new American medium-range missiles in Germany from 2026, in response to Russian aggression.

The decision was first announced on the sidelines of the NATO summit in the United States in mid-July.

On Monday this week, the Social Democratic Party, the party of Chancellor Olaf Scholz, approved the deployment, but the way the decision was communicated upset Thuringia Interior Minister Georg Maier, who said in an interview with Deutschlandfunk, “The decision makes our election campaign more difficult”.

Maier didn’t oppose the deployment itself, however, saying, “National security comes first, but what interests me is how this decision was reached and how it’s communicated”.

Roderich Kiesewetter, foreign affairs expert for the CDU parliamentary group, was more subdued.

“This is another example of how discussions about security policy in Germany are in a confused way, where the basic principles of security policy or deterrence are not understood politically everywhere and hysterical responses are immediately made,” he told DW.

“I think the impact of the missile deployment decision on the elections will be limited, because the SPD and the AfD have already exhausted their voter base with their anti-Americanism and naivety towards Russia, and this decision will only strengthen this base,” he said.

This view, shared by many representatives of the government parties from the Social Democrats, the Greens, the Free Democratic Party, as well as the conservative Christian Democratic Union, may not be widely present in the election campaigns in the east, where these parties increasingly find themselves defending their continued support for Ukraine and the deployment of new American weapons in Germany.