1 Apr. (EUROPE PRESS) –
Several German political figures, including Social Democrats and trade union leaders, have called on German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to support peace negotiations and an urgent ceasefire in an appeal entitled “The world needs peace.”
The initiative comes from historian Peter Brandt, son of former chancellor Willy Brandt, and asks Scholz for more involvement to achieve a ceasefire in a conflict that has become “a bloody trench warfare in which there are only losers.”
“Every day that passes increases the risk of an escalation of hostilities. The shadow of a nuclear war looms over Europe, but the world must not fall into a new great war,” says the text, published in the ‘Frankfurter Rundschau’ and the ‘Berliner Zeitung’.
That is why they ask Scholz “to do everything possible to achieve a ceasefire, stop the Russian war of aggression and find a way to negotiations.”
Specifically, they ask Scholz to partner with France and convince Brazil, China, India and Indonesia to promote mediation “to quickly achieve a ceasefire”, a necessary step to “stop the massacre and explore the possibilities of peace”. The path is “the language of diplomacy and peace.”
The text bears the signature of former personalities of Scholz’s Social Democratic Party (SPD) such as Norbert-Walter Borjans, Wolfgang Thierse or Guenter Verheugen. They are also the former president of the Council of the Evangelical Church of Germany Margot Kaessmann; the former president of the German Trade Union Confederation Reiner Hoffmann; the federal president of Friends of Nature, Michael Mueller; and the member of the International Office for Peace Reiner Braun.