BERLIN, July 30. /TASS/. A senior German lawmaker has blasted German Chancellor Olaf Scholz for deciding to place US missiles in the country without consulting the Bundestag.
"Of course, Scholz should not have made such a far-reaching decision bypassing parliament. After all, we are talking about a measure that raises the risks of a war for Germany manifold," Amira Mohamed Ali, the co-chairperson of the Bundnis Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW) association, told the Rheinische Post in an interview.
According to her, the move to deploy US missiles on German soil is yet another step toward military escalation. "This is a very dangerous course that the German government should reject," said Mohamed Ali, a member of BSW, whose leader opposes anti-Russian sanctions and weapons supplies to Kiev.
Johann Wadephul, deputy chairman of the faction of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the Christian Social Union (CSU), also stressed the need for an open parliamentary discussion of the issue. "Certainly, the Bundestag should discuss this issue. The German government communicated on this issue in a clandestine manner," he told the Rheinische Post. When people find out about such a critical decision all of a sudden at a press conference, without any prior discussion, trust is eroded, the politician argued while himself supporting the US missile deployment.
According to the July 10 joint statement released by Washington and Berlin, the United States will begin deploying new longer-range fire capabilities in Germany in 2026. Russia’s Ambassador to Washington Anatoly Antonov said that these plans made a missile arms race more likely and could lead to uncontrolled escalation.
In a speech at the Main Naval Parade in St. Petersburg on Sunday, Russian President Vladimir Putin issued a warning to Washington saying that Moscow would consider itself not to be bound by the unilateral moratorium on the deployment of medium and shorter-range strike weapons, if the US deploys its longer-range missiles in Germany. Christiane Hoffmann, First Deputy Spokesperson of the German Federal Government, said at a news briefing that the German Cabinet had taken notice of the Russian leader’s statement.