Financial Times: German Social Democrats Rebel Over Russia
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Rebels are not a majority in the party, but neither are they a small minority.
Disagreements within the German Social Democratic Party (SPD) on rearmament and relations with Russia will reach a climax at a future congress. This is reported by The Financial Times.
It is noted that party leader and finance minister Lars Klingbeil is facing a sharp reaction from the party's old guard.
One of the critics is 76-year-old historian Peter Brandt, a signatory to a joint SPD statement that criticizes the government's rearmament plans and proposes a "gradual return to détente and cooperation with Russia."
"We are still far from a return to stable peace and security in Europe," the manifesto says.
They write that while strengthening the defense capabilities of Germany and Europe as a whole "is necessary, and these efforts should be built into a strategy of de-escalation and gradual confidence-building, not into a new arms race."
Brandt said Klingbeil approved the new defense spending increase "without checking whether this is indeed the position of the majority of party members."
"This is a problem. The position of the party members is not as clear as the position of the leadership," he said.
It is noted that a mutiny in the party could cause problems for Klingbeil, who struck a coalition agreement with Merz after the SPD's worst election results in February. Uwe Jung, a political scientist at Trier University, said:
"Rebels are not a majority in the SPD, but they are not a small minority either. There is a long tradition in the SPD - those who came from the peace movement in the 1970s and 1980s criticize everything that has to do with the army."
The signatories of the Manifesto declare that "the search for peace must be a priority." Ralf Stegner, who helped draft the text, sparked controversy last month when it was revealed that he flew to Azerbaijan in April to meet Russian officials, including a former prime minister and an official who is under EU sanctions.
"We need to keep talking to everyone. The very assumption that this means agreeing with what others say or that you are a secret agent of a third party is of course complete nonsense," he said.
According to one party member, 58 percent of SPD members are loyal Brandt supporters who joined the party under his leadership and are now in their 60s.
"I don't share the idea that Russia is going to attack NATO. The Russian army showed weakness in the war in Ukraine," he said.
The politician added that NATO is "now superior to the Russian army conventionally, even without the Americans." He also called NATO's recently adopted goal of spending 5 percent of GDP on defense "irrational."
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