Merz plans to set a 24-hour deadline for Russia, pushing for Taurus missile delivery to Ukraine to enhance its military capabilities against aggression.
Don't get your hopes up. Merz would sell his own mother if it raised his chances of getting elected. He's just listening to what's unpopular about the current government and claiming to do whatever is the exact opposite. A lot of it is just hot air from yet another populist.
I expect him to continue support for Ukraine though, so that's good at least.
Honestly Merz does a lot of shit, but he is for pro Ukranian action, which is relativly unpopular. The issue is more, that he has never been in government and a lot of his other ideas are horrible.
Also the CDU is in parts very pro Russia. Kretschmer comes to mind.
It shouldn’t be that only one side wins, we need to make agreements that are favourable to both sides.
Yeah I really hope he means like, Russia fuck off to their side of the fence and everyone peel back sanctions, as opposed to give Russia some of the occupied territory
Is there any hint of a reason why Putin would ever be scared of Taurus missiles?
from a glance, they look very equivalent to the british storm shadows Ukraine already gets.
Not that Germany shouldn't supply, it just seems that this ultimatum is a purely political idea about the upcoming german elections.
Merz ist a Joke and he will most certainly not pull through if the Trump Administration interferes. Just another US Puppet, which in Turn is a Russian puppet... so yeah, just a stunt.
Don't listen to "Cunt-hunter-Freddy", he says everything to get Power.y favorite story is when he lost his laptop and a homeless person finds it. He thanked him for bringing it back with an issue of his new book. He's pure disgust.
Just for the record, and context: That wasn't misogyny, it's not calling any woman anything (though using a word vulgarly referring to female genitalia), it's the established insult for Merz. Really doesn't translate well, not so much word-wise but connotation and implication-wise. Cf. the American vs. English vs. Australian usage of the word, doesn't translate at all and that's within the same language.
It's an imputed high-school nickname calling him, in my reading, an immature braggart. You know, 12yold brags about their extensive sexual experience, gets called "pussy hunter" in return to make fun of him. There's also the additional linguistic quibble that the word, to the amusement of the rest of the republic, simply means "face" in Bavarian and can be used there more or less in the sense of "gob", as in "shut your gob". He indeed has a big one.
if something like this works (I am guessing only if many EU countries follow suit) then maybe us Americans can suffer 4 years of Trump in exchange for Ukrainian freedom.
As an american, I'll suffer the bullshit that the right does, if it means Ukraine gets to still exist. Give me some of their pain. I wish I could take that for them.
Oh I'm sure the thought of two dozen cruise missiles will straighten Putin out ASAP.
For starters, this would not be a new or unprecedented capability for the Ukrainians.
If Germany had several hundred to part with immediately, and the capacity to regularly replenish those stocks, that would make a significant difference on the battlefield, but I doubt it would make Putin sue for peace.
But of course, Germany does not have those kind of stockpiles or manufacturing capacity to maintain that.
Still, it would be nice to see more European politicians picking up the banner of supplying Ukraine in the face of likely diminished, or eliminated, American transfers.
Oh, believe me...we have that manufacturing capabilities. I live near where parts of Taurus are made...
It's just that there's no "demand" and the bundeswehr doesn't have enough money to just order them to stockpile.
Capability and capacity are two very different things.
Yes, I understand the manufacturing capability exists, but it's capacity is limited i.e. existing facilities could not maintain a strategically significant production volume relative to Ukraine's needs, much less to deter Putin.
Taurus would be used more or less like Storm Shadow against high value strategic targets. The big difference is that Germany would have to default to allow its use on targets inside Russia, since activly being part of the targeting might very well be unconstitutional. So what could be expected are a bunch of Russian jets, ammunition stockpiles and maybe the Kerch Bridge being blown up. Ukrainian drones are not stealthy, so they are much easier to intercept or to warn against. Hence something like Taurus can make a difference.
So it is usefull, but it is not going to change the war fundamentally.
I understand exactly what it is. What I'm saying is that Germany does not have the volume on hand, or the manufacturing capacity to produce such a volume, where it could generate the effect the candidate is implying it can.
Let's see how big on words he is once he's out of opposition. Either way his leadership comes at the cost of him being a 90s neo libertarian with his own private plane. Other than that he is conservative through and through.
So (I) expect no big investments into health care, education, green technology or public transport but more in tax cuts for the wealthy and investments into "new and revolutionary technologies that will solve all our problems for sure bro" and individual transport infrastructure (which tbh would actually be needed since the German infrastructure is in a pretty bad state with a lot of highway bridges being at the end of their life cycle). And for all the problems we just blame migrants and strengthen right wing populist positions.
Soo yeah, not really happy with him, not really happy with anyone else atm.
ah, wasnt aware he was a conservative. Thats unfortunate. Lately it seems like all the conservatives are paid off by Putin-- this one seems to have not gotten his check.
Not for much longer unfortunately. He will likely be elected the next chancellor when early elections happen sometime in the next months. It's also not unlikely that he will willingly form a coalition with the far-right extremist AfD that love to suck on Putin's tit and have supported the idea of Ukraine ceding territory to Russia.
He's a disgusting piece of shit and this is just him using Ukraine to fish for votes.
Most likely launcher would be Gripen. So this kinda depends on Sweden more than on Germany. Though the signals i saw coming from Sweden are that they would be willing to give Ukraine what they need, including fighter jets, provided that NATO takes up the slack in air defence in Sweden.