Kretschmann mocks open letter – “I could have tried harder”
“Faced with the nuclear threat, it is not appeasement that helps, but deterrence”
“It means nothing more than to ask the attacked to capitulate”, says the green politician Ralf Fücks about the open letter of intellectuals around Alice Schwarzer. Along with other celebrities, he advocates arms deliveries to Ukraine. We must not be ruled by fear.
For the Prime Minister of Baden-Württemberg, Kretschmann, the false propaganda of the Russian president is intolerable. We must not passively accept this “author-victim reversal”. That is why he does not attach much importance to the open letter of eminent Germans to Chancellor Scholz.
DBaden-Württemberg Prime Minister Winfried Kretschmann (Greens) finds little to gain from an open letter to Olaf Scholz, which German celebrities published in the magazine “Emma”. In an interview with the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung”, the green politician said that he was basically happy that intellectuals got involved. However, the argument is very flat. “They could have tried a little harder for the fact that intellectuals signed it,” Kretschmann continued.
The open letter, signed by feminist Alice Schwarzer, cabaret artist Dieter Nuhr and science journalist Ranga Yogeshwar, among others, warned of the delivery of heavy weapons to Ukraine and a third world war.
The letter goes on to say that responsibility for the danger of an escalation to nuclear conflict lies not only with the original aggressor – but also “those who, with their eyes wide open, provide him with a motive for possibly criminal action.” .
Kretschmann still remembers his parents’ escape stories
Kretschmann does not agree with this attitude. For the Prime Minister, Putin’s false propaganda can no longer be supported. The Russian president is pursuing “an author-victim reversal in disturbing brutality”. All this only allows the conclusion not to remain passive.
In this context, he also remembers his parents’ escape stories. “And now, at the age of over seventy, I hear stories of dramatic escape again.” He recently spoke to a Ukrainian Jew who fled Russian bombs in Germany: “It went through my spinal cord and my leg.”
In the interview, the Green Prime Minister also explains that, in his view, Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck was right to demand arms deliveries to Ukraine before the start of the Russian invasion. According to Kretschmann, he also thought it was fair at the time, but did not comment publicly: “I can’t forgive myself for this silence.”
Robert Habeck had been strongly criticized by his party after his statements on arms deliveries in the summer of 2021. In the meantime, Germany has promised to deliver heavy weapons to Ukraine.
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