It was fortunate for Olaf Scholz that he could hide behind his face mask when Volodymyr Zelensky addressed German parliamentarians on Thursday. The Ukrainian President gave one of the most powerful speeches ever heard in the building’s 128-year-history — but in reply the German Chancellor had nothing to say.
The House of Commons and the US Congress reacted to Zelensky’s heartbreaking appeals with calls to action and military aid. The German Bundestag applauded politely for less than a minute before moving on to business as usual. Scholz later tweeted that “we will do everything possible to give diplomacy a chance” — code for carving up Ukraine to placate Putin.
In a courteous yet devastating oration of less than ten minutes, Zelensky exposed the fictions on which German policy has been based since the Cold War: that it was safe to become dependent on Russian energy; that repeating the mantra “never again” meant that war and genocide could not return to Europe.
The bitterest pill of all to swallow for a German audience was to be told by a Jew that their fine words about the Holocaust, not least at Babyn Yar in Ukraine, the site of Nazi massacres, were “worthless”. By continuing to import huge quantities of Russian gas and oil, Europe is financing Putin’s war machine to the tune of £500 million a day — and Germany is by far the biggest culprit.
What makes Zelensky’s critique especially hard to bear is that Germans know full well that Russia is not the only country whose armed forces have invaded Ukraine, deliberately targeting civilians and destroying cities there. More than any other European nation, the Germans owe a unique debt to the peoples occupied and enslaved by the Third Reich, including Ukraine. Indeed, that history is being weaponised by Putin, who constantly refers to the Ukrainian leaders as Nazis. Yet seen from Kyiv, Berlin’s reluctance to step up EU sanctions and its eagerness to cut a deal with Putin amount to betrayal.
Zelensky’s peroration alluded to the immortal words of Ronald Reagan, another actor-turned-President. Standing at the Berlin Wall in 1987, Reagan defied his diplomats to confront the Soviet leader: “Mr Gorbachev, tear down this Wall!” The Ukrainian President issued a similarly provocative challenge: “It is not a Berlin Wall — it is a Wall in central Europe between freedom and bondage and this Wall is growing bigger with every bomb”, he said. “Dear Mr Scholz, tear down this Wall!”
If Scholz hoped that he had gone far enough by promising to raise defence spending and lifting a ban on arms to Ukraine, he now knows better. The press reacted with dismay to his failure to rise to the occasion of Zelensky’s address. It was a “black day”, a “disgrace”, a “historic low point”.
Not just Scholz’s centre-Left Government but the whole German political class has been found wanting. Smugly prattling about realpolitik while Ukrainians are dying for their freedom, these armchair Bismarcks have been exposed as the dishonest brokers that they are.
If Germany is to recover from this shameful episode, it will have to make real sacrifices. Britain and the US should encourage Berlin to impose an energy embargo on Russia and tighten sanctions; not double, but treble its defence spending; and abandon its dovish posture to realign itself with the more hawkish members of NATO. Only if they stand up to Russia will Germans be able to offer Europe the leadership role that Zelensky says they deserve.
