In view of the chaos in the rescue of German and local workers from Afghanistan, Green leader Robert Habeck has demanded a complete clarification of the mistakes made. “The statements of the federal government that nobody warned of the situation arouse serious doubts,” said Habeck of the “Rheinische Post” on Wednesday. In addition to Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU), Vice Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) and the ministries for foreign affairs and defense are responsible.
“One could and should have prepared” for the takeover of power by the Taliban, even if the pace might not have been foreseeable, criticized the Green chairman. He pointed out that the Greens had already pushed for easier admission of Afghan local staff in the Bundestag in June, which was rejected by the Union and the SPD at the time. Foreign Minister Heiko Maas (SPD) did not even take warnings from his own embassy staff in Kabul seriously.
The former Green chairman Cem Özdemir also attacked Maas sharply. Özdemir said on Deutschlandfunk that he was responsible for “the greatest foreign policy disaster since the Federal Republic of Germany came into existence”. Germany is now abandoning people in Afghanistan who would have risked their lives as local personnel for the Bundeswehr. In addition, the question arises what the Federal Intelligence Service (BND) has actually done in the past weeks and months.
Left-wing politician Gregor Gysi called for the resignation of the entire federal government. “The whole thing is disastrous,” he told the MDR. Gysi accused the government of serious omissions as early as April “could have brought the embassy staff and also the helpers of the Bundeswehr back”.
FDP Vice-President Wolfgang Kubicki also called for the resignation of at least the responsible ministers. “Both the Chancellor, Defense Minister Kramp-Karrenbauer and, above all, Heiko Maas are responsible for the biggest foreign policy disaster since the existence of the Federal Republic of Germany. We have never been badly governed,” said Kubicki of the “Rheinische Post”. Resigning would be “an important symbolic act to demonstrate that one still takes responsibility in the highest political offices”.
The German government had hesitated for a long time with a rescue operation for Germans still in Kabul and for Afghan local forces in the Bundeswehr, as well as other Afghans threatened by the Taliban’s takeover. It was not until Monday that a chaotic operation began to bring people to safety from Kabul Airport. However, the airport is barely accessible, especially for Afghan local workers or representatives of civil society, because of the Taliban checkpoints at the driveways. (dpa)
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