Germany’s Scholz under friendly fire over US missile plan
“Not every weapon makes Germany immediately safer,” says Rolf Mützenich, the leader of the SPD faction in the Bundestag.
That's especially true for the members of Chancellor Olaf Scholz's Social Democratic Party (SPD).
The decision by Scholz to agree to allow the United States to base missiles in Germany from 2026 that are capable of striking targets at distances of 2,500 kilometers — easily able to hit Moscow from Berlin — has some in his own party up in arms.
“Not every weapon makes Germany immediately safer,” Rolf Mützenich, the leader of the SPD faction in the Bundestag lower house of parliament, told POLITICO’s Berlin Playbook podcast.
He had earlier argued that the deployment further escalates the simmering conflict between the West and Russia, and makes a miscalculation more likely.
Russian President Vladimir Putin warned that the missiles could eventually be equipped with nuclear weapons and threatened a tit-for-tat response should Washington deploy them.
The objections from SPD members of parliament come despite the Bundestag not really having a say in the issue, as the deployment doesn't involve public spending and won't be controlled by the German military. But senior SPD lawmakers working on defense and security said in a note to colleagues, seen by POLITICO, that they will call a debate in the Bundestag in September to discuss the issue.
“The current debate surrounding the announced stationing of long-range conventional weapons systems in Germany concerns us all,” the note reads.
On the sidelines of July's NATO summit, both Washington and Berlin agreed the U.S. will begin "episodic deployments" of missiles in 2026. The deal includes Tomahawk cruise missiles, SM-6 ballistic missiles and hypersonic systems currently in development, with the caveat that none would bear nuclear weapons.
The decision to accept the deployment is a "response to a threatening, worrying developments over the last 10 years," the political director of Germany's defense ministry, Jasper Wieck, said this past week.
"They will have a range that goes far beyond what we have so far in the European part of the alliance," said Wieck.
One issue, Mützenich made clear, is that it’s still unclear as to whether Berlin would have any say in how such weapons are used.
“These are terrible weapons systems,” said Falko Drossmann, an SPD lawmaker and former air force officer. “There is no point in kidding ourselves about that.”
He added, however, that although "a lot of grumbling" is to be expected, the parliamentary group will eventually accept the deal.
Opposition will likely peak around September's regional elections in three eastern German states, where Russia-friendly parties such as the far-right Alternative for Germany and the populist Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht are especially popular.
While 49 percent of Germans think deploying U.S. missiles in their country is "not right," this is true for 74 percent of citizens in the states of the former East Germany, according to a Forsa survey published on Wednesday.
