Former German minister says Scholz fired him over proposal to give Ukraine Taurus missiles
Former German Finance Minister Christian Lindner said that he was dismissed by Chancellor Olaf Scholz after he proposed to transfer long-range Taurus missiles to Ukraine. According to Lindner, this proposal was strongly rejected by Scholz, who has consistently opposed such a move. Lindner spoke about his position during a speech, the Berliner Zeitung reports.
Lindner noted that during the meeting of the coalition committee, plans to support Ukraine were discussed, and Scholz proposed to allocate a loan of 15 billion euros, of which 3 billion would be allocated to Ukraine. However, according to Lindner, this amount would not have a significant impact. He insisted that in order to increase support, Ukraine should receive long-range Taurus missiles, which, according to him, the Free Democrats have always wanted, unlike other parties.
Scholz categorically rejected this idea, and after the discussion, he informed Lindner of his resignation.
As a reminder, the coalition in Germany collapsed after Scholz’s decision to dismiss Lindner in response to a document published in the press in which Lindner outlined his own vision of economic reforms. In response, Scholz accused him of breaching trust and called for a different economic policy, after which Lindner resigned.
It is worth noting that Scholz has repeatedly stressed the unacceptability of using German weapons to strike deep into Russian territory and strongly opposed the provision of Taurus missiles to Ukraine.
