German Defense Minister resigns amid pressure to increase support for Ukraine

German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht has submitted his resignation to the chancellor Olaf Schölz, as she herself has reported in a statement. This decision represents the culmination of a process of Lambrecht’s decadence in the ministry due to skepticism about his ability to lead the German army and the shipment of more weapons to Ukraine.

“Today I have asked the chancellor to dismiss me from the post of federal defense minister,” Lambrecht, a member of Scholz’s Social Democratic Party (SPD), said in the statement.

His decision to resign comes at a time when Germany is under pressure to approve an increase in international military support for kyivand in which Germany’s defense capabilities have been called into question after a series of “unprecedented problems”.

[El difícil desembarco de la ‘heredera’ de Merkel en el Ministerio de Defensa]

Among the most prominent problems is the fact that several Puma infantry tanks were put out of service during a recent military exercise or leak the secret plan for the delivery of anti-aircraft systems “Patriot” to Poland.

Rumors about the resignation grew after the president of the defense committee of the German Parliament, Marie-Agnès Strack-Zimmermann, pressured Scholz to send more weapons to Ukraine and the disagreements with the Ministry of Defense in this regard.

Also, the new years speech, branded by the press as “shameful”, was the final straw for Lambrecht. In it, he thanked 2022 for all the “great people” he had met.”thanks to the war in Ukraine“.

In the recent INSA ranking for the Bild newspaper on politicians, Lambrecht took last place, behind the heads of the AfD, Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla. For all this, the media had been harshly criticizing Lambrecht’s work for several days and Bild already announced last Friday that the minister had her hours counted.

The statement has come through an Instagram post and says the following:

Today I have asked the Federal Chancellor to remove me from the post of Federal Minister of Defence. The media attention paid to me for months hardly makes it possible to objectively report and discuss the military, the Bundeswehr and security policy decisions in the interests of the citizens of Germany. The valuable work of the soldiers and the many motivated people in the division must come to the fore. Therefore, I have decided to put my office at your disposal. I want to thank everyone who is committed every day to our safety and wish them the best for the future.

The German media are considering that the possible successor to Lambrechtto whom the Scholz has offered its confidence in this context of scandal, could be the former Defense Commissioner of the German Bundestag, Eva Höglwho is a member of the SPD.