Berlin, Jan 16 – The German Defense Minister, Christine Lambrech, announced on Monday that she has submitted her resignation to Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz, after several days of speculation in the German media about the possibility of him leaving the government.
“Today I asked the Federal Chancellor to leave the post of Federal Defense Minister. The focus of the media on me makes it difficult to provide professional information and discussion about soldiers, the Federal Army and security policy issues,” the minister said in a declaration.
The 57-year-old minister, a member of the German Social Democratic Party (SPD), like Scholz, had been the object of criticism for months from her own party and from others and in the media, especially in relation to decisions related to the war in Ukraine.
Lambrecht had recently caused outrage by a video message recorded on a Berlin street on New Year’s Eve amid a deafening noise of firecrackers and fireworks and in which he took stock of 2022 with reference to the war in Ukraine.
After the invasion of Ukraine, he was also controversial for his announcement of the willingness to send helmets to that country as a support measure in its defense against Russian aggression, which was considered little less than a mockery compared to the commitments of other countries in the shipment of military material.
Lately, the minister was the protagonist of the public debate on the shipment of tanks to Ukraine, as kyiv insistently requests, and last week she declared that the supply of Leopard 2 main battle tanks by Germany to Ukraine is not currently under discussion, although In general terms, he noted that the correct approach is “to exclude nothing”.
Regarding his possible successor in the position, German media cite, among others, Eva Högl, in charge of questions about the federal Army in Parliament, Hubertus Heil, Minister of Labour, Lars Klingbeil, co-chairman of the SPD, and the Secretary of State for Defense , Siemtje Moller.