The world is puzzled as to why the German Chancellor has delayed the expected delivery of modern tanks. His silence is his biggest mistake.
What the hell is going on with the Germans? Or rather, with your chancellor, Olaf Scholz? After a year, how could Europe’s most powerful country take so long to decide when to hand over its modern Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine to repel the expected next offensive by Russian invaders? What goes through the minds of the Chancellor’s strategists, who now have to be provoked behind closed doors by the leaders of their closest ally, the protective power of the United States?
In Berlin, people hesitate and procrastinate, it has been said for almost a year now. The momentum of the tipping point proclaimed by Scholz seems to have faded, the EU’s Eastern European members in particular are frustrated. The German Chancellor signals: Germany supports Ukraine – but only reluctantly. Only when the pressure becomes painful and everyone is losing patience does economic power take another step. Scholz is therefore in line with her predecessor, Angela Merkel, who likely would have waited with deliveries of Leopard 2 until the others went ahead.