Delegations from the USA, Ukraine and several European countries, including Germany, held negotiations in Geneva on Sunday about a 28-point plan presented by the USA to end the war in Ukraine. In its original version, this largely met Moscow’s key demands. According to European information, changes were achieved during the talks in Geneva.
The Chancellor fundamentally welcomed the USA’s continued commitment to resolving the conflict: he also said that to President Donald Trump, he emphasized. However, it is a “fateful moment for Ukraine, also for Europe and for our alliance.” Therefore, an “agreement negotiated between major powers without the consent of Ukraine and without the consent of the Europeans” will not be the basis for a real, sustainable peace in Ukraine.
This is perhaps the “most important guiding principle of our politics”, namely the preservation of peace and freedom in Europe. “We don’t want peace through surrender, but we want peaceful coexistence between the peoples of Europe based on our democratic, liberal values,” said Merz. In addition, there is “only one aggressor” in the conflict, namely Russia.
Against this background, SPD parliamentary group leader Matthias Miersch defended the extensive funds in the budget for Germany’s defense capability. “I think we all had to learn that we have a new aggression, that we need a strong Bundeswehr and that we have to invest here.” Defense is not pitted against other goods.
AfD leader Alice Weidel accused the federal government of failing in its efforts to find a peace solution. “Thank God we have a real chance for peace through Donald Trump,” she said. However, the government “did not contribute any part” to this, quite the opposite. The AfD is “the only party, the only faction with open channels” to the USA and Trump and to Russia. The AfD has always demanded exactly what Trump is now doing.
Left parliamentary group leader Heidi Reichinnek criticized that “exactly what we on the left had been warning about all along” had happened. The USA and Russia “neither negotiated with Ukraine nor with the EU, but rather wrote something together in private,” she said in the Bundestag. “The EU should have made much earlier and much greater diplomatic efforts, involving other countries and responding to existing initiatives.”
The leader of the Green Party, Britta Haßelmann, criticized the proposals originally presented by the USA – this was not a peace plan, but a “plan of subjugation for Ukraine and nothing else”. It is necessary for the Europeans to come together; Europe must “act together and unite.”
Haßelmann took the AfD to task. Anyone who “boasts about maintaining open channels with Russia” is acting without empathy and is a danger to the peace and security of the country.
