Russia’s war against Ukraine has laid bare the German establishment’s cynical foreign policy. Since the beginning of the invasion, prominent figures from across the German political spectrum have made statements demonstrating that Germany’s chief priority is its economy, regardless of the costs incurred by other countries as a result of this policy.
A prominent example is Christian Lindner, German minister of finance and leader of the Free Democratic Party (FDP), who has taken one of the bluntest economy-oriented positions in response to Moscow’s military aggression.
According to Ukraine’s envoy to Germany, Andriy Melnyk, on the day Russian President Vladimir Putin declared war on Ukraine, on February 24, Lindner dismissed the idea of sending weapons to Ukraine or of cutting Russia off from SWIFT, because “Ukraine only had several hours,” and the Ukraine authorities were supposedly getting ready to cut a deal with the invaders.
Linder has also continuously opposed banning Russian energy imports, as it would undermine Germany’s well-being, preferring instead to occupy himself with defending the interests of his core voters and donors.
“Lindner is a member of the liberal party, which is heavily focused on business interests. Except for a few real experts on Eastern Europe – for example, Alexander Graf Lambarsdorff who is a hardliner against Putin – most party members have long opposed sanctions, favoring economic cooperation with Russia instead,” Sergey Sumlenny, a Berlin-based commentator on Eastern Europe, told the Kyiv Post.
Official Bundestag records offer a glimpse into FDP’s heavy reliance on big business players, such as Woolworth GmbH, TEDI GMBH & Co. KG, Verband der Bayerischen Metall- und Elektro-Industrie e.V. , Droege Group AG and others.
The party, which usually plays the role of kingmaker in Germany’s government coalitions, received EUR 900,000 in campaign funding just before the country’s parliamentary elections last autumn. By comparison, its business-centered competitor, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), raised EUR 485,000.
This kind of significant financial support can be explained by Lindner’s charismatic appeal and heavy focus on the economy. It’s also due to his cold-blooded, populist political calculations, which cause him to sometimes lose his “liberal compass”. In 2015, for example, he opposed Chancellor Angela Merkel’s decision to take in hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees fleeing Assad’s regime, aligning FDP with far-right, anti-immigration parties like AFD.
“I think that Lindner is not fully aware of the reality of Eastern Europe and Ukraine. So, I believe that his statements are more populist and aimed at local voters who oppose any type of business limitations, including sanctions,” explains Sumlenny.
Although Linder is among the more cynical German politicians with regard to his views on Russia’s war on Ukraine which, according to him is “making everyone poorer because we need to pay more for imported energy resources,” he’s not alone.
For decades, Gerhard Schröder (SDP) and Angela Merkel (CDU), both former chancellors, have been helping Russia to install its business interests in their country. The Nord Stream One pipeline circumventing Ukraine was built in 2011 after a period when Schröder was chancellor. Merkel presided over the completion of Nord Stream Two.
Neither the annexation of Crimea, the war in eastern Ukraine nor robust opposition within the bloc stopped Merkel from pushing through Nord Stream Two, although Putin’s pet project is now on hold.
Unlike Lindner and Schröder, Merkel grew up in Stasi-controlled Communist East Germany, is well-versed in East European politics and fluent in Russian. However, all this did not preclude her from building successful business and geopolitical relations with authoritarian Russia.
In 2008, Merkel invited Putin to the NATO Summit in Bucharest, where together with French President Nicolas Sarkozy she blocked accession of Ukraine and Georgia to the NATO Membership Action Plan, which would have prevented Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine in 2014 and 2022.
She was also among the architects of the Minsk Agreements, which weakened Ukraine’s negotiating position with Russia and crippled its Euro-Atlantic aspirations. And her response to Volodymyr Zelensky’s recent invitation to visit Bucha to see the consequences of refusing Ukraine NATO membership shows that she has no regrets. On the contrary, she demonstrated self-righteousness and, unlike her former colleague former German Foreign Minister Frank Walter Steinmeier, who is now the country’s president, did not regret her support for Nord Stream Two.
Although Merkel’s Social-Democratic successor Olaf Scholz slightly changed the tone of Germany’s foreign policy, he, like most German political figures, continues to focus on the country’s economic interests.
While Scholz’s government agreed to send weapons to Ukraine and provide it with security guarantees, the Germans continue to obstruct Kyiv’s NATO membership and a ban on the import of Russian fossil fuels, as this would supposedly trigger a recession and impact the EU more than Russia.
With evidence growing that Russia has committed genocide in Ukraine, and pressure for a response mounting from EU member states, the main question now is whether Germany will be able to sustain its cynical self-interested approach once EU member states finalize a new package of sanctions.
The Baltic states have already cut off Russian gas supplies, and France is considering sanctions on Russian oil and coal, with Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba stating that half-measures are now off the table.
Leading media outlets like Deutsche Welle are likewise calling out the government and businesses, including Ritter Sport, Metro, Globus, Bayer, Henkel, and Kauf, which it describes as “war collaborators.”
“What happened in Bucha will definitely increase pressure on the German government. Voters, partners, and Ukraine will demand more real actions,” Sumlenny said, adding, however, that he is unsure whether this will stop Germany from buying Russian gas.
“So far, it’s been all talk and no action on the part of the German government,” he underlined.
The opinions stated in this article are the author’s and not necessarily those of the Kyiv Post.
