Germany appoints Boris Pistorius as new defence minister, averts government crisis
German defence minister
Germany named Boris Pistorius as the country’s new defence minister on Tuesday (January 17) following the resignation of Christine Lambrecht a day prior. This comes weeks after several missteps by the now former defence minister of Berlin and amid mounting pressure on the country from European allies to approve the re-export of Leopard tanks for Ukraine amid its ongoing conflict with Russia. Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s administration made the announcement and averted a possible government crisis ahead of the upcoming meeting with Western defence officials at the Ramstein military base, on Friday.
According to the chancellor’s spokesperson, the 62-year-old German lawmaker from the country’s Lower Saxony state and Scholz’s Social Democratic Party (SPD) will be sworn in on Thursday. A day before the new defence minister is expected to host his US counterpart, Lloyd Austin in Berlin. Pistorius also completed his military service in the 1980s and has been serving as Germany’s interior minister in Lower Saxony since 2013.
ALSO READ |German defence minister Christine Lambrecht resigns after a series of gaffes
In a statement making the announcement about the new defence minister Scholz said, “Pistorius is an extremely experienced politician who has administrative experience, has been involved in security policy for years”. He added, “with his competence, assertiveness and big heart, is just the right person to lead the Bundeswehr (armed forces) through this epochal change.”
The outgoing defence minister, Lambrecht, had recently come under fire for posting a video on social media on New Year's Day that attempted to recapitulate her experiences of the war in Ukraine while also thanking servicemen and women but could not be heard against the noise of fireworks around her. She drew major criticism from the opposition who called her message tone-deaf. Additionally, many had been critical of her performance as the defence minister as well as Germany’s response amid the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
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Notably, Berlin has been facing mounting pressure from its allies about theauthorisationof the re-export of modern battle tanks to Ukraine.Since the Leopards are being produced by Munich-based defence company Krauss-Maffei Wegmann their delivery to Kyivwould require the authorisation of the country of origin which in this case is Germany.However, Scholz previously said that such a move would have to be coordinated with the entire Western alliance, including the US.
(With inputs from agencies)
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