Christine Lambrecht was criticized for not having succeeded in modernizing the German army despite the allowance of a special fund of 100 billion euros created after the invasion of Ukraine by Russia in February.
MO12345lemonde with AFP
His departure was announced on Friday. She became effective on Monday, January 16. Christine Lambrecht, the German Minister of Defense presented her resignation to Chancellor Olaf Scholz, in a declaration transmitted to the press .
“The focus of the media on my person for months hardly allows to establish objective reports and discussions on the soldiers, the Bundeswehr [the German army] and the orientations of the security policy in the interest German citizens, “deplores Christine Lambrecht in her declaration. In this context, “I asked the Chancellor today to get my functions as a Minister of Defense,” she adds.
According to her, “the precious work of soldiers and many motivated people must be in the foreground”, while Germany provides investments of 100 billion euros to modernize its army, following the war in Ukraine. The name of the one who will succeed him is not yet known.
This resignation is part of the context where Germany is under pressure again to deliver tanks to Ukraine. A meeting of Western allies, around the United States, will be held on Friday on the American basis of Ramstein. New aid to Ukraine, invaded by Russia, should be announced on this occasion.
Aged 57 years old, M me lambrecht, social democratic minister of justice in the previous Angela Merkel coalition government, has chained the blunders since the start of the war in Ukraine, February 24.
series of blunders
M me lambrecht also embodied, in the eyes of the Ukrainian regime but also of the Germans, the gaps of an army whose material is dilapidated. She aroused kyiv criticisms by announcing the sending of 5,000 helmets, when the Volodymyr Zelensky regime asked for heavy weapons. In mid-December, Berlin had to suspend new commands of armored vehicles Puma after a series of breakdowns hitting the armored vehicles already used by the army.
Finally, a video in which she presented her wishes, in early January, had also earned her railleries and criticism. The minister appeared there in the center of Berlin, disheveled by gusts, evoking the war in Ukraine between two explosions of firecrackers and fireworks, particularly popular with the Germans to celebrate the new year.
“A war raged in the midst of Europe. I was able to draw many particular impressions of it,” said the Minister also about the Russian invasion, evoking “a lot, a lot of meetings with people interesting and great “. “For that, I say a big thank you.”