The Bundestag once again failed to support the proposal of the democratic opposition faction of the CDU/CSU to transfer long-range Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine. In particular, Scholz spoke out against the transfer, considering it to be Germany's involvement in the war with Russia.
This was stated by Alexander Müller, a leading member of the German Bundestag defense committee, Euractiv reports.
The roll call vote was not initiated by the opposition, but in accordance with the recommendations of the Bundestag Foreign Affairs Committee, which recommended to reject the proposal.
495 MPs voted in favor, 190 voted against, and 5 abstained.
Before the vote, there was an hour and a half debate initiated by the conservative opposition on the motion "To consistently continue to support Ukraine - to decide on the delivery of Taurus cruise missiles".
In their speeches, MPs, even those from the Green and Liberal parties that are part of the ruling coalition, mostly expressed support for the idea of providing Ukraine with long-range missiles. However, during the voting, these two parties were forced to follow the so-called "coalition" discipline and vote against it together with the Social Democratic Party.
As usual, the initiative was opposed by the right-wing populist Alternative for Germany party and the Left, which have consistently called for a complete cessation of all arms supplies to Ukraine, believing that this would open the way to peace talks.
The parties of the democratic center - both the coalition and the opposition - emphasized that internal political conflicts play into the hands of Russian propaganda and Putin himself, who is trying to sow discord in Western democracies and increase disagreements by using the topic of aid to Ukraine.
In addition, earlier in the Bundestag, on March 13, Chancellor Olaf Scholz, a member of the SPD, categorically rejected the possibility of transferring these weapons systems to Ukraine and accused opposition MPs of "instrumentalizing the Taurus issue."
Some analysts believe that the true reasons for Olaf Scholz's blocking of the transfer of Taurus missiles to Ukraine are not disclosed, but he publicly claims that this decision is due to his unwillingness to "involve German soldiers" in the conflict with Russia.
"There are one or two things, that cannot be discussed publicly, that rightly make him (Scholz - ed.) hesitant," said Alexander Müller, a leading member of the German Bundestag's defense committee.
According to the newspaper, during a speech in the Bundestag on March 13, Scholz accused opposition MPs of "instrumentalizing the Taurus issue" despite the fact that they are well aware that information about the real reasons remains confidential.
Earlier, we wrote why Olaf Scholz does not want to transfer Taurus missiles to Ukraine.