Christine Lambrecht had made a series of mistakes that made her continuity impossible due to her unpopularity with the troops and public opinion
Germany’s Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht tendered her resignation to Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Monday after adding to a string of petty scandals that made her tenure untenable. The resignation comes just over a year after his appointment and at a sensitive time as the Bundeswehr, the federal military, faces radical reforms and modernizations and the country joins Western efforts to support Ukraine in its war against Russia. The resignation has been expected since last Friday, when the first rumors of this possible move leaked, and it has not surprised anyone in Berlin. “After months of media attention on my person, it is practically impossible to report and discuss the soldiers and make the relevant political decisions on security in the interest of the citizens of Germany,” the letter with his resignation to the German chief. .
The Social Democratic politician, one of the Chancellor’s most loyal cabinet members, had become an untenable position after adding a series of mistakes that led to demands for her resignation not just from the opposition, but from the same tripartite party that governs in Berlin. Lambrecht had even lost the support of his own officials and was openly criticized by senior German army officers. It is still unknown who will take over his successor. Among the names under consideration are the Federal Chancellery Ministers Wolfgang Schmidt and Labor, Hubertus Heil, the Federal Government Commissioner for the Army, Eva Högl, the Parliamentary State Secretary at the Ministry of Defence, Siemtje Möller and the Chair of the Social and Democratic Party (SPD), Lars Klingbeil.
After just over a year in office, Lambrecht was piling up one blunder after another that had made her extremely unpopular with the troops and with public opinion. Instead of visiting German soldiers on foreign missions in December 2021, a must for every top officer in the Armed Forces, he simply traveled to Lithuania to closely meet the German soldiers stationed there and left the winter holidays to head to the Austrian city. to ski. from Ischgl, where he spent Christmas and New Year. Criticism against him was heard again when, shortly after the Russian invasion of Ukraine began and at Kiev’s urgent request to supply weapons for the defense of the country, he announced the shipment of 5,000 military helmets as a “clear sign” that Berlin supports the attacked nation. A contribution that was described as ridiculous at the time.
The ex-minister’s discredit was further reinforced when she and her son visited a military unit in northern Germany by helicopter last spring, before going on holiday with him to the island of Sylt under military escort. Images that his son posted on Instagram of the flight and the confirmation that it was not the first time his son had accompanied him on an official trip only accentuated the criticism. A visit to German troops in Mali shortly afterwards in high-heeled shoes did her image little good. The straw that broke the camel’s back was a New Year’s message on his private Instagram account, shot outdoors and with midnight fireworks in the background, in which he spoke of the Russian bombing of Ukraine. Even his own Social Democratic co-religionists found this initiative shameful and tactless at the time.
Source: La Verdad
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